Need help for with my Archmage.

[Zanatar]

Ok first off, I'm not 100% certain this is a dumb question or not.. But given I'm new and still learning about the game.. I figured I'd post it here.

Ok, I am following an archmage build I`ve found off the Vault on the main site for TOME.
It's an archmage char that is a winner (ie: won the game).. on Normal Adventure.

The vault shows his full character profile and what Talents that player had for his Archmage, but not the order it was taken in.

I`ve just hit level 10.

Essentially.. my Class talents so far are:
Arcane: 5/3/1/0
and
Air: 5/0/0/0

The char will eventually have Arcane: 5/5/5/5 but not there yet.

This essentially just gives me Lightning and Mana Thrust and Arcane Vortex as offensive spells at the moment.

The advice I`m asking for, is to figure out which Category to unlock first, with the Category point I`ve unlocked.

This guy`s char has :
Aether: 5/5/4/5
Temporal: 5/5/5/5
Meta: 1/5/0/0

So I`ll be working towards those overtime.. I just don't know which to unlock first. Aether, Temporal or Meta.

Advice?

[malboro_urchin]

So I`ll be working towards those overtime.. I just don't know which to unlock first. Aether, Temporal or Meta.

Advice?

Aether first, as long as you're careful, then get Meta later. You just have to really watch out for Aether Beam. I made an arcane/aether archmage recently, and its only 2 deaths so far were from Aether Beam and stupidly standing in its range before unlocking Meta.

[Zanatar]

Ok .. perhaps I can also ask how to use the character? It's my first Archmage..

What is the dangers around using Aether exactly? Does something in Meta counter that danger?

[RedBucket]

It's easy to forget the AoE on aether beam, and the explosions of aether breach are scattered within its AoE and can reach beyond it. Spellcraft in meta makes your spells not hit yourself.

[malboro_urchin]

Sorry, probably should have elaborated more.

The dangers of Aether: the spells are very strong, and you have very little hp. You get hit by your own spells, you die. My only deaths on my Cornac Aethermage were accidental suicides via Aether Beam (which not only kills you, but also can silence you so you can't heal if you somehow survive the first volley of beams and are too close to get out of range in time)

I think Aether Beam has beams out to range 3. It's easily one of your most damaging talents when placed properly. Set Aether Beam somewhere the enemies will get hit by the beams, somewhere you won't get hit by the beams, and somewhere the enemies won't step on the circle.

Oddly enough, Aether Beam functions as a trap, and enemies tend to have an easy time of disarming it.

Aether Breach is cool and all, but Aether Beam can really put out tons and tons of damage, if enough beams hit the enemy. Beam is far more riskier to your survivability than Breach, in my opinion.

Sounds like you're not playing Cornac; my Aethermage is Cornac, for the cat point into Temporal (read: Time Shield). It really helps me get through the early game before I have all the nifty engines of destruction set up.

As a not-Cornac, I'd do what I said above: get Aether at lv 10 for the very nice damage and flashy spells, and just play it safe with your various AoE's until you can spend your lv 20 cat point into Meta & immediately 5/5 Spellcraft. As you put ranks in Spellcraft, the chance of you hitting yourself with your spells goes up by 20%/point, to a max of 100% own-spell-avoidance with 5 points.

Waiting til lv 20 to get Meta also has the nifty side benefit of getting you more mana, which you'll need for all your sustains and because Aether spells are mana hungry.

Sustains: Spellcraft is obviously important, and both Shielding and Arcane Shielding are very important to have. I always get confused as to which one's which, but one of them makes direct heals (not regeneration, or any other healing over time) also shield you for a % of the heal value. The other strengthens all your shields by a given %, and at level 5 (with 4 talent points spent), increases the duration of all shields on you by a turn. Those two and Arcane Reconstruction (all in the Aegis tree) will keep you alive as long as you preempt your enemies with the shielding.

As for how I played, with all the above sustains on, autoexplore, watch my positioning of my own spells, heal as needed, rinse, repeat.

One last note re: Aether: do not use Aether Avatar until you've maxed out the Pure Aether sustain, which allows you to use Aegis spells while in Aether Avatar form. Without that sustain at level 5, you can only cast arcane and aether spells while in Aether Avatar form.

[Zanatar]

Thank you, this is great info !

[malboro_urchin]

Thank you, this is great info !

Happy to help!