Spec my Cornac Archmage

[mpa]

Hi guys,
thanks for your help in http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=29558.
Stun resistance really helped with boss fights.

Because I managed to unlock archmage, I immediately rolled a new archmage char.
Luck is on his side so far. He has yet to lose a life and is now at level 20 with 6 stat points, 2 categories, 11 class and 3 generic points.

What should I put the points into ? I really want this guy to go far, I am sick to death with doing the same dungeons over and over again.

He did the starting dungeons, Forest, the Underwater home and just finished Maze.
Next he will do the halfling city, Sand worm and then finally Daikara (hopefully will have great freeze resist by then).

PS
Temporal, Storm and Stone categories are open.

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Sex              : Male         STR:  20
Race             : Cornac       DEX:  10
Class            : Archmage     MAG:  61
Level            : 20           WIL:  38
Exp              : 1%           CUN:  15
Gold             : 409.07       CON:  28

Accuracy(Main Hand):  15        Life             :     355/364  Encumbrance      : 68/96
Damage  (Main Hand):  32                                        Difficulty       : Normal
Permadeath       : Adventure
APR     (Main Hand):   5        Mana             :     353/373
Crit    (Main Hand):   6%       
Speed   (Main Hand): 1.00       
                                
                                

Fatigue          : 14%          Spellpower       : 68
Armor            : 19           Spell Crit       : 19.5%
 Armor Hardiness  : 30%          Spell Speed      : 1
Defense          : 5            
Ranged Defense   : 13           
Arcane damage    : 6%
Fire damage      : 10%
Cold damage      : 10%
Lightning damage : 10%
Acid damage      : 10%
Blight damage    : 4%

Physical Save    : 20.8
Spell Save       : 34.65
Mental Save      : 18.55

All Resists:   3%
Poison Resistance:   0%
Confusion Resistance:  10%
Stun Resistance:  17%
Knockback Resistance:  20%

Number of NPC killed: 1010
Most killed NPC: giant white rat (36)

  [Talents Chart]

 - Technique / Combat training        (mastery 1.00)
    Thick Skin (generic)              1/5
    Armour Training (generic)         1/10
    Combat Accuracy (generic)         0/10
    Weapons Mastery (generic)         0/10
    Knife Mastery (generic)           0/10
 - Spell / Arcane                     (mastery 1.30)
    Arcane Power (class)              1/5
    Manathrust (class)                5/5
    Manaflow (class)                  1/5
    Disruption Shield (class)         0/5
 - Spell / Fire                       (mastery 1.30)
    Flame (class)                     5/5
    Flameshock (class)                3/5
    Fireflash (class)                 0/5
    Inferno (class)                   0/5
 - Spell / Earth                      (mastery 1.30)
    Stone Skin (class)                0/5
    Strike (class)                    0/5
    Dig (class)                       0/5
    Stone Wall (class)                0/5
 - Spell / Water                      (mastery 1.30)
    Corrosive Vapour (class)          1/5
    Freeze (class)                    1/5
    Tidal Wave (class)                0/5
    Ice Storm (class)                 0/5
 - Spell / Air                        (mastery 1.30)
    Lightning (class)                 0/5
    Chain Lightning (class)           0/5
    Feather Wind (class)              0/5
    Thunderstorm (class)              0/5
 - Spell / Phantasm                   (mastery 1.30)
    Illuminate (class)                0/5
    Blur Sight (class)                0/5
    Phantasmal Shield (class)         0/5
    Invisibility (class)              0/5
 - Spell / Conveyance                 (mastery 1.30)
    Phase Door (generic)              5/5
    Teleport (generic)                5/5
    Displacement Shield (generic)     1/5
    Probability Travel (generic)      0/5
 - Spell / Divination                 (mastery 1.30)
    Arcane Eye (generic)              5/5
    Keen Senses (generic)             0/5
    Vision (generic)                  0/5
    Premonition (generic)             0/5
 - Spell / Aegis                      (mastery 1.30)
    Heal (generic)                    1/5
    Shielding (generic)               0/5
    Arcane Shield (generic)           0/5
    Aegis (generic)                   0/5

  [Inscriptions (3/3)]

Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Regeneration
Rune: Manasurge

[lukep]

Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I have never gotten to the East with an Archmage:

1. 1 category point for an extra inscription slot, for a shielding rune. This will help you survive bursts of damage, as well as providing an instant buffer when you are reduced to low HP. Along with this, the Aegis tree is very good for making your character tougher, provided you have enough mana for the sustains.

2. 1 (or more) point into lightning. Having enough low cooldown skills to constantly cycle between them is very nice.

3. max flameshock, its AoE damage and paralysis (not stun) makes it a very powerful talent.

4. Don't be afraid to invest only one point into a wide variety of activated talents, the slight loss in power is more than made up for with added versatility. Most skills are about half as powerful at level 1 compared to level 5.

5. For stat points, max magic, then go for WIL or CON, depending on whether you are having more trouble with HP or mana.

[bricks]

Yes, Aegis is great, and probably the easiest way to build defenses for an Archmage.

[kazak 2]

* I'm a big fan of keen senses for the 20% or so boost to spell crit.
* Illuminate at 3 blinds, which is useful throughout the game.
* Meta is a popular tree to unlock: Spell shaping is good if you decide to pump inferno, and Quicken spells will lower cooldowns on spells and runes.
* I used to rely heavily on invisibility, but I haven't played an archmage since it got nerfed. Not sure if it's still worthwhile....

[Aquillion]

Max Shielding, get two strong shield runes, put them on auto-activation so you have one up at all times. Helps you immensely against unexpected attacks.

[shooth]

I would caution you not to over-invest in support skills too early in the game. A 5 in eye, phase door, and teleport might be nice, but I dont think at this point they are all required. Might want to spread those generic points into other skills... aegis tree is nice, you will definitely want strong shields. Also, try out improbability travel. -> "Hello. I'm here to set this whole room on fire. Goodbye, I'm leaving through this wall. Don't worry, I'll be back in seven turns when I can set everything ablaze again."

On the offensive side, you have tons of possibilities. Every spell in the Fire tree can be used until late game, for the first time over, you cant go wrong there. I'm a fan of the Meta tree, for spell shaping, which lets you avoid damage from your own spells. (And when your inferno does 100+ points a turn for 8 or 9 turns late game, you dont want to have to soak that damage.) There are lots of other fun things to choose from. I would make sure you have two good area spells by the time you go east.

Often the advanced trees work in concert with a basic tree. (air/storm, earth/stone, etc). You might want to consider this as you decide how to proceed. I had a rocking good time with a storm mage last year.

Regarding spell cycling: You always want to be able to cast something. I find three quick cycling spells is plenty, just pick what you like. Strike will get you some knockback, lightning will get you another beam spell.

Anyone care to comment on quickening and some of the meta-stuff?

[mpa]

Thanks for your responses !!
Accordingly I have put 5 points into lightning. It now cycles with Manathrust and Flame.
Has 4 points in Flameshock. A really good spell but the cooldown is horrendous.
Really need another AoE but I dunno what, maybe Fireflash ?
Inferno looks great on paper but I dont think I will survive being surrounded by enemies anyways. Woud surrounding yourself with Stone Wall and casting Inferno / Ice Storm work ? That would help me with defeating the ambush.

The 5 points into Arcane eye was supposed to help me with stealthy enemies but it doesnt seem to actually enable me to see stealthed creatures. It still allows me to barrage the enemy from afar which is quite good although maybe not "5 generic points good".

I really wanted a shielding rune but have been very unlucky so far. I think the best shielding I found was a brawler shielding which gives around 180 damage shield. In retrospect I should have swapped my Manasurge for Shielding regardless, but I really thought I would find a better one soon so I sold it.

When clearing Kryl-Fejian I put full points into Essence of Speed out of desperation. Seems to work out pretty nicely though there were still too many close calls due to the lack of shielding rune.

Thanks for the auto activation tips. Really makes life easier. Too bad you cant auto cast arcane eye on yourself.

After the Maze he cleared out the halfling city, sand worm, rescued the merchant, cleared Daikara, the temporal rift and finally Kryl Fejian. Probably gonna go to ruined dungeon or check out golem graveyard next (except that I couldnt find them so far). The Master scared the beejesus out of me so I will delay Dreadfell as long as possible.

As a side note:
I save scummed and tried the farportal. The boss is ridiculous. An oozed slime with temporal magic. So every turn it will split into two and then they would split again. If I spend more than a couple of turns there would be 4 of those things casting weird temporal stuff . If I teleport away they just gonna teleport next to me. After a while there were at least 6 or so of those things running around the level, each with 1500 hp and crazy ass time magic. I burned 5 lives before finally killing one. So .. yeah ... ridiculous .. I restored my old save and resolved to not never go anywhere near farportal ever again.

But anyways... back to speccing !

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  [Tome 4.00 @ www.te4.org Character Dump]

Sex              : Male         STR:  26
Race             : Cornac       DEX:  20
Class            : Archmage     MAG:  67
Level            : 27           WIL:  49
Exp              : 36%          CUN:  21
Gold             : 1333.19      CON:  29

Accuracy(Main Hand):  23        Life             :     437/437  Encumbrance      : 59/86
Damage  (Main Hand):  47                                        Difficulty       : Normal
Permadeath       : Adventure
APR     (Main Hand):  10        Mana             :     261/261
Crit    (Main Hand):  11%       
Speed   (Main Hand): 1.00       
                                
                                

Fatigue          : 27%          Spellpower       : 94
Armor            : 18           Spell Crit       : 26.3%
Armor Hardiness  : 30%          Spell Speed      : 1
Defense          : 8.5          
Ranged Defense   : 8.5          
Physical damage  : 5%
Arcane damage    : 6%
Fire damage      : 6%
Cold damage      : 21%
Lightning damage : 6%
Acid damage      : 20%
Blight damage    : 4%
Temporal damage  : 12%

Physical Save    : 16.25
Spell Save       : 40.6
Mental Save      : 39.5

All Resists:   6%
Physical Resist(cap):  15%( 75%)
Cold Resist(cap):  25%( 70%)
Acid Resist(cap):  25%( 80%)
Nature Resist(cap):  15%( 70%)
Temporal Resist(cap):  17%( 70%)
Poison Resistance:   0%
Disease Resistance:  10%
Confusion Resistance:  10%
Silence Resistance:  30%
Stun Resistance: 100%
Knockback Resistance:  44%

Number of NPC killed: 1785
Most killed NPC: snow giant (66)

  [Talents Chart]

 - Technique / Combat training        (mastery 1.00)
    Thick Skin (generic)              2/5
    Armour Training (generic)         1/10
    Combat Accuracy (generic)         0/10
    Weapons Mastery (generic)         0/10
    Knife Mastery (generic)           0/10
 - Spell / Arcane                     (mastery 1.30)
    Arcane Power (class)              1/5
    Manathrust (class)                5/5
    Manaflow (class)                  1/5
    Disruption Shield (class)         0/5
 - Spell / Fire                       (mastery 1.30)
    Flame (class)                     5/5
    Flameshock (class)                4/5
    Fireflash (class)                 0/5
    Inferno (class)                   0/5
 - Spell / Earth                      (mastery 1.30)
    Stone Skin (class)                0/5
    Strike (class)                    0/5
    Dig (class)                       0/5
    Stone Wall (class)                0/5
 - Spell / Water                      (mastery 1.30)
    Corrosive Vapour (class)          1/5
    Freeze (class)                    1/5
    Tidal Wave (class)                0/5
    Ice Storm (class)                 0/5
 - Spell / Air                        (mastery 1.30)
    Lightning (class)                 5/5
    Chain Lightning (class)           0/5
    Feather Wind (class)              0/5
    Thunderstorm (class)              0/5
 - Spell / Temporal                   (mastery 1.30)
    Congeal Time (class)              1/5
    Time Shield (class)               1/5
    Time Prison (class)               1/5
    Essence of Speed (class)          5/5
 - Spell / Phantasm                   (mastery 1.30)
    Illuminate (class)                0/5
    Blur Sight (class)                0/5
    Phantasmal Shield (class)         0/5
    Invisibility (class)              0/5
 - Spell / Conveyance                 (mastery 1.30)
    Phase Door (generic)              5/5
    Teleport (generic)                5/5
    Displacement Shield (generic)     1/5
    Probability Travel (generic)      0/5
 - Spell / Divination                 (mastery 1.50)
    Arcane Eye (generic)              5/5
    Keen Senses (generic)             0/5
    Vision (generic)                  0/5
    Premonition (generic)             0/5
 - Spell / Aegis                      (mastery 1.30)
    Heal (generic)                    1/5
    Shielding (generic)               0/5
    Arcane Shield (generic)           0/5
    Aegis (generic)                   0/5

  [Inscriptions (3/3)]

Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Regeneration
Rune: Manasurge

  [Current Effects]

- Essence of Speed

I have 1 category point, 6 class and 9 generics.
Survival, Wild gift/harmony, Storm. Meta, Stone and Wilfire categories are learnable.
Saving the generics for Aegis but if I cannot find shielding rune before the Master I will use it on -something- to improve my chances with him.

[shooth]

Generic points:
Probability Travel, even at 1, is VERY worth it. Chances are you wont ever need to invest more in it.
Keen senses is nice for the bonus to spell crit.
And the whole Aegis tree...I think you will find those generics well invested.

AoE:
Fireflash is a strong spell, and gets very strong (and large area affected) as you raise it... but consequently you have to be VERY careful where you aim it... until you get spell shaping

Chain lightning can also work pretty well for hitting a number of mobs at once, and while not as predictable as fireflash, it wont hit you! Also, I love how it will wind down corridors and around corners.

[Frumple]

The 5/5 teleport kinda' makes me wince; one or two points into it usually does fine for what TP does for you. A point for future consideration, anyway.

Inferno won't synergize with stone wall, but it will with time prison (which you can aim at yourself, yes.), iirc. Congeal time's also pretty decent, oddly enough. Slow can be a vicious debuff.

Consider a point or two into tidal wave, can be very helpful when you're surrounded with melee characters and PDing out isn't an option. Strike's knockback can help with non-rushing melee critters, too.

You, uh. Really want probability travel, at least one point, maybe two. The talent is practically broken with how powerful it is in most situations. It almost completely trivializes any area that isn't no-teleport.

Invest on up into aegis, of course. If you can't find a decent shield, heal/arcane shield combo will give a decent one while healing you up at the same time. Good stuff.

As for the remaining cat points, I'd say either wildfire or stone, and meta. Then probably use the final bile granted one on an extra inscription slot.

Quick E: Oh, and re: Farportal boss. You got one of the worst critters you can get, namely a casting/ranged splitter. Most of the bosses aren't quite that vicious and the reward can be definitely worth it. Probability travel would make those fights a lot more bearable for you.

[Final Master]

Lots of things to go over

1) Fatigue - fatigue effects the cost of your spells by twice the amount of your fatigue value. Your last dump showed a fatigue of 14% - which then makes all your spells cost 28% extra. This is far too high. Check your kit and see if you can swap for leather/cloth items instead of metal.

2) About Aegis - aegis is the most self synergistic tree in the game. Heal [the first talent in the tree] procs all 3 of the other talents. You sustain Shielding and Arcane Shield - cast heal and this puts up a shield that lasts ... quiet a long time and that blocks [depending on your talent levels and spellpower] anywhere from 300 - ~800 [end game] shield, while ofcourse healing you. THEN, if you still need more shield power, you activate Aegis and it increases it's power by even more.

3) A mage only cares about 3 things - Spellpower, Mana, how much damage shield I have - in other words, max out Magic, Willpower, and either Con/Cun [in that order] while investing in the Aegis tree [survival], and maybe picking up one other shield talent [Displacement Shield is a good one, though theoretically they are all the same].

4) You MUST beable to very your damage types as there are many things that will have random [and not so random at times] high resists to a specific damage type[s]. This is what [even with the 4th talent in the advanced elemental trees] makes playing specialized mages very dangerous. So, good job at having manathrust, flame and lightning all at good levels.

5) As a mage, you only need [if you want control] 4 points in PD and TP - as all the specified level effects [unless otherwise noted] run off of effective talent level [which is mastery * talent points]

6) As to offensive spells, that really varies on your playstyle. If you like taking out things in big woffs of carnage, then fire/water is great for you. If you want to play a bit more tactically, then Stone/Air/Storm is good. If you like to be in the thick of things then getting water/air is a good choice.

7) Unlike what seems like everyone else, I am keen on the idea of only needing 3 infusion slots and instead unlocking extra talent trees/increasing mastery. If you were to choose a particular damage type you wanted to focus on [lets take fire for example] - you could unlock Wildfire, increase Fire mastery and wildfire mastery [3 category points] - this makes all the masteries at 1.5 - which means at talent lvl 5 all your spells are really at a lvl 7 - which can make them much more powerful. I don't find much benefit in having 5 temporary use abilities [insciptions] over having 3 and having more powerful talents.

8) Arcane eye is an anti-ambush talent - you can cast it at the end of a corridor and it will tell you if there is anything actively dangerous there - you can cast it on a summoner and no matter where you are it will tell you how well protected it is.

9) If you like crits [which who doesn't?] - then keen senses would be very good, especially if you are going Mag/Will/Cun - you can easily end up with a spell crit chance in the 80%'s

10) A mage isn't about max life and the ability to heal, it's about having enough utillity to not have to heal, and enough damage blocking to where if you were to need a heal, you can shield, teleport safely, then heal/rest

11) This game is about cooldowns and tactically controlling them. Quicken spells sucks mostly because your B&B spells are so quick [and quicken spells is a hugely expensive sustain]. Instead, get Metaflow, which just puts your cooldowns on 0 instead of lessens them.

12) A mage has so many build options that there isn't any one 'correct' or 'best' build - though for synergistic purposes, you can definitively go fire mage [with wildfire tree] with spell shaping, EoS, Metaflow, manathrust, Aegis, Divination, Conveyance - that can make for a very AOE power mage. Another popular option [for me any way] - is to go Wave , aka Tidal Wave, Ice Storm Thunder Storm with dropping lightning and chain lightning and a corrosive vapor.

13) Advanced non elemental trees generally go either Meta or Temporal [fire mage or non fire mage] - and the benefits very drastically. Meta will give you spell shaping [really only useful to a fire mage] and metaflow and a couple other ignorable talents. Temporal will give you the amazing Time Prison and EoS - which everyone would find useful. But, it's generally impractical to go for both these trees [as they both require a category point, and are class trees]

14) Unless you are only using high cost spells [bad] - you probably won't need a manaflow rune - instead you can probably nab anything else but an attack rune, sun infusion or ... teleport/PD rune.

15) Get illuminate to lvl 3 - trust us, you'll love it.

16) Have fun, really, that's the goal.

Enjoy, I hope I was helpful.

FM

PS - probability travel is overrated. :p

[bricks]

7) Unlike what seems like everyone else, I am keen on the idea of only needing 3 infusion slots and instead unlocking extra talent trees/increasing mastery. If you were to choose a particular damage type you wanted to focus on [lets take fire for example] - you could unlock Wildfire, increase Fire mastery and wildfire mastery [3 category points] - this makes all the masteries at 1.5 - which means at talent lvl 5 all your spells are really at a lvl 7 - which can make them much more powerful. I don't find much benefit in having 5 temporary use abilities [insciptions] over having 3 and having more powerful talents.

Agree with this wholeheartedly. Apart from Shielding Runes, which are quite important for the Aegis tree, and Wild Infusions for clearing status effects, Archmages more or less have access to every rune/infusion through their talent trees. (Which kind of makes them ridiculous.) The only problem is that they require mana, so a Manasurge rune doesn't hurt either.

[Parcae]

I'd also like some advice for my Cornac Archmage. Would it be a good idea to invest my nine class points in the Fire tree? I'm only about a third of the way to unlocking Wildfire and I haven't seen much advice for people who don't have the special ice and fire trees unlocked yet.

[mpa]

Just wanted to thank you all for your help with my archmage. He is now wrecking the Pride in the East. I succumbed to weakness and finally save scummed this guy. Without a shield rune handy, he is on a tilt all the time. Not only that, there are many quests / places that seem simple and easy but is a death trap in reality (such as the Last Hope graveyard quest) and I wanted to try my hand again in exploring farportals.

Thanks for making me put lots of generic points into the Aegis tree. With all that investment, casting a heal spell not only will put me back to full health but also gives me 650 shielding at the same time. Not exactly a replacement for a shielding rune, which is instantaneous, yet a life saver nonetheless.

An acceptable shielding rune was found when I was level 36 or so. It is a 362 shielding for 5 turns with 20 turns cooldown. Somewhat disappointing. Not sure if I will replace my manasurge rune with this.

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  [Tome 4.00 @ www.te4.org Character Dump]

Sex              : Male         STR:  23
Race             : Cornac       DEX:  19
Class            : Archmage     MAG:  85
Level            : 39           WIL:  90
Exp              : 48%          CUN:  22
Gold             : 3520.69      CON:  41

Accuracy(Main Hand):  15        Life             :     628/632  Encumbrance      : 63/81
Damage  (Main Hand):  58                                        Difficulty       : Normal
Permadeath       : Adventure
APR     (Main Hand):   5        Mana             :     240/240
Crit    (Main Hand):   8%       
Speed   (Main Hand): 1.00       
                                
                                

Fatigue          : 6%           Spellpower       : 135
Armor            : 18           Spell Crit       : 45.70612342494%
Armor Hardiness  : 30%          Spell Speed      : 1
Defense          : 15.15        
Ranged Defense   : 15.15        
All damage       : 12%
Arcane damage    : 27%
Fire damage      : 18%
Cold damage      : 18%
Lightning damage : 18%
Acid damage      : 22%

Physical Save    : 34.4
Spell Save       : 91.25
Mental Save      : 81.2

All Resists:   9%
Fire Resist(cap):  18%( 70%)
Cold Resist(cap):  18%( 70%)
Nature Resist(cap):  14%( 70%)
Disease Resistance:  23%
Confusion Resistance:  15%
Blind Resistance:  47%
Silence Resistance:  30%
Stun Resistance:  92%
Knockback Resistance:  32%

Number of NPC killed: 3377
Most killed NPC: skeleton warrior (115)

  [Talents Chart]

 - Technique / Combat training        (mastery 1.00)
    Thick Skin (generic)              3/5
    Armour Training (generic)         1/10
    Combat Accuracy (generic)         0/10
    Weapons Mastery (generic)         0/10
    Knife Mastery (generic)           0/10
 - Spell / Arcane                     (mastery 1.30)
    Arcane Power (class)              1/5
    Manathrust (class)                5/5
    Manaflow (class)                  3/5
    Disruption Shield (class)         0/5
 - Spell / Fire                       (mastery 1.30)
    Flame (class)                     5/5
    Flameshock (class)                5/5
    Fireflash (class)                 4/5
    Inferno (class)                   0/5
 - Spell / Earth                      (mastery 1.30)
    Stone Skin (class)                0/5
    Strike (class)                    0/5
    Dig (class)                       0/5
    Stone Wall (class)                0/5
 - Spell / Water                      (mastery 1.30)
    Corrosive Vapour (class)          1/5
    Freeze (class)                    1/5
    Tidal Wave (class)                0/5
    Ice Storm (class)                 0/5
 - Spell / Air                        (mastery 1.30)
    Lightning (class)                 5/5
    Chain Lightning (class)           0/5
    Feather Wind (class)              0/5
    Thunderstorm (class)              0/5
 - Spell / Temporal                   (mastery 1.30)
    Congeal Time (class)              1/5
    Time Shield (class)               1/5
    Time Prison (class)               1/5
    Essence of Speed (class)          5/5
 - Spell / Phantasm                   (mastery 1.30)
    Illuminate (class)                1/5
    Blur Sight (class)                1/5
    Phantasmal Shield (class)         1/5
    Invisibility (class)              1/5
 - Spell / Conveyance                 (mastery 1.30)
    Phase Door (generic)              5/5
    Teleport (generic)                5/5
    Displacement Shield (generic)     1/5
    Probability Travel (generic)      1/5
 - Spell / Divination                 (mastery 1.50)
    Arcane Eye (generic)              5/5
    Keen Senses (generic)             3/5
    Vision (generic)                  1/5
    Premonition (generic)             0/5
 - Spell / Aegis                      (mastery 1.30)
    Heal (generic)                    5/5
    Shielding (generic)               1/5
    Arcane Shield (generic)           5/5
    Aegis (generic)                   0/5

  [Inscriptions (3/3)]

Infusion: Wild
Infusion: Regeneration
Rune: Manasurge

  [Current Effects]

- Probability Travel
- Essence of Speed
- Keen Senses
- Arcane Shield
- Shielding

  [Character Equipment]

 In main hand
a) Cyrowyn (26.5-31.8 power, 5 apr, nature damage)
   Type: weapon / staff
It must be held with both hands.

Base power: 26.5 - 31.8
Uses stat: 100% Mag
Damage type: Nature
Armor Penetration: +5
Physical crit. chance: +4.5%
Attack speed: 100%
When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Wil / +3 Mag
Damage on hit(melee): 2 fire
Changes damage: +4% acid
Talent mastery: +0.20 Spell / Divination 
Maximum mana: +34.00
Spellpower: +27
Spell crit. chance: +13%

   Dropped by Polytira the snow giant chieftain
 In off hand
 On fingers
b) quartz ring
   Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%

c) conjurer's stralite ring of evocation
   Type: jewelry / ring

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +6 Wil / +5 Mag
Changes damage: +9% arcane
Mana each turn: +0.13
Spellpower: +5
Spell crit. chance: +4%

   Dropped by Velywen the orc cryomancer
 Around neck
d) stabilizing stralite amulet of willpower (+5)
   Type: jewelry / amulet

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +5 Wil
Stun/Freeze immunity: +16%
Knockback immunity: +20%

 Light source
e) Void Star
   Type: lite / lite

When wielded/worn:
Changes damage: +6% arcane / +6% fire / +6% cold / +6% lightning / +6% acid
Spell crit. chance: +5%
Light radius: +2
It can be used to activate talent Echoes From The Void (costing 70 power out of 70/70) :
Effective talent level: 2.0
Use mode: Activated
Range: 10.00
Travel Speed: instantaneous
Usage Speed: 1 turn
Description: Shows the target the madness of the void.  Each turn for 6 turns the target must make a mental save or suffer 39.84 mind damage as well as resource damage (based off the mind damage and nature of the resource).

   Dropped by Spacial Disturbance
 Main armor
f) Robe of the Archmage (10 def, 10 armor)
   Type: armor / cloth

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +10
Defense: +10
Changes stats: +4 Mag / +4 Wil / +4 Cun
Damage when hit: 15 arcane
Changes resistances: +10% fire / +10% cold
Changes damage: +12% all
Spell save: +18
Mental save: +15
Blindness immunity: +40%
Mana each turn: +1.00
Spellpower: +15
Light radius: +1

   Dropped by orc high pyromancer
 Cloak
g) regal cashmere cloak (2 def, 0 armor)
   Type: armor / cloak

When wielded/worn:
Defense: +2
Changes stats: +2 Cun / +3 Wil
Silence immunity: +30%

 On head
h) shaloran hardened leather cap of constitution (+5) (0 def, 3 armor)
   Type: armor / head

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +3
Fatigue: +3%
Changes stats: +2 Wil / +5 Con
Disease immunity: +18%
Stun/Freeze immunity: +30%

 Around waist
i) spiritwalker's hardened leather belt of magery
   Type: armor / belt

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +7 Mag / +4 Wil
Mana each turn: +0.10
Maximum mana: +20.00
Spell crit. chance: +4%

 On hands
j) spellstreaming dwarven-steel gauntlets of protection (0 def, 2 armor)
   Type: armor / hands

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +2
Changes stats: +1 Wil
Changes resistances: +6% nature
Physical save: +5
Spell save: +5
Mental save: +5
Spellpower: +3
Spell crit. chance: +3%

   Dropped by Ivuriata the brittle clear ooze
 On feet
k) wanderer's pair of hardened leather boots of stability (0 def, 3 armor)
   Type: armor / feet

When wielded/worn:
Armor: +3
Fatigue: +3%
Changes stats: +3 Con
Blindness immunity: +7%
Disease immunity: +5%
Confusion immunity: +5%
Stun/Freeze immunity: +16%
Knockback immunity: +12%

   Dropped by orc warrior
 Tool
l) Pick of Dwarven Emperors (dig speed 12 turns)
   Type: tool / digger

When wielded/worn:
Changes stats: +3 Str / +3 Con
Changes resistances penetration: +10% physical
Physical save: +7
Spell save: +7
Mental save: +7
Maximum life: +50.00
It can be used to dig a wall, cut a tree, ..., costing 1 power out of 1/1.
 Quiver

[greycat]

An acceptable shielding rune was found when I was level 36 or so. It is a 362 shielding for 5 turns with 20 turns cooldown. Somewhat disappointing. Not sure if I will replace my manasurge rune with this.

I'd never play a mage without a manasurge rune.

Level : 39 WIL: 90

Confusion Resistance: 15%
Stun Resistance: 92%

Begging for death....

[timmay]

At past level level 30 you're pretty much set in what your archmage can do.
But here's some advice if you ever feel like playing another archmage (as in one with the bonus trees unlocked at the start)

Been said already:

1) level phase 4 times (effective level 5) so you can save those idiot escorts from attacking an elite mob at 10% health.

2) displacement shield is an incredibly broken skill and your ticket to surviving against bosses, max this early

3) put 1 point in probability travel, it makes traveling through maps much easier and you can pull off really cheesy escape tactics against bosses


New advice:

1) speed is the best stat in the game, at +100% speed, you cut all damage done to you by half while giving your archmage an extra action to cast a spell, heal, move around or escape.

- Essence of speed is totally worth it
- flame archmages should unlock and max out elemental harmony to get the 40% boost in speed from stepping in the burning wake aftereffect (or inferno), this is also the best way to utilize cleansing flames which neutralizes almost all debuffs
- leave spellshaping at 1 or to choose not level it at all because then you won't get that speed boost or cleansing effect

2) Max crit and the first 3 skills of the aegis tree, so you can crit on your heals(...) and produce shields with 250-300% of the heal value

- You get an extra heal spell from learning the optional tree from escorting an Anorithil, these are the only two healing skills in the game that can crit.
- healing infusions are poop late game because they can't crit
- to max out crit, try to find Tarelion's lost staff which gives you (25% crit) and the gauntlets that make your crits twice as effective (+50% crit modifier)

3) against a mob/boss the most effective strategy is to use damage over time spells like Inferno and/or Ice storm and then teleporting away/PT/time imprisoning yourself/or using stone wall (more cost efficient than time imprison)

4) maxed quicken spells is better than maxed metaspells because it doesn't cost an action and it breaks some of your spells

- your healcrit shields outlast the cd needed to produce the shields
- you don't have to level time prison to 5, 3 is good enough
- phase and teleport always available
- ice storm lasts forever
- beam spells don't need the cd reduction anyways because you can just refresh them just by taking a step back


misc advice:

1)the fire/wildfire branch is the best tree. all other unlockable trees are slightly weaker.

2) earthen missiles has an annoying sound effect, don't level it.

3) my recommended use for category points are on Wildfire, Temporal, Meta, Light (from Anorithil) & Harmony

- with a cornac archmage you can catch them all and be a pokemon master