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

[meerk]

First, I wanted to thank Mex for the guide.

Using the approach described in the guide, I had my first nightmare win yesterday.
http://te4.org/characters/30630/tome/c5 ... c835a6b660

Things pretty much went as described, even though the difficulty was lower. My main changes were:

• I only found one item with reduced spell cooldown in my run (boots). So I had 60% cooldown instead of 50%. As the guide says, this is a pretty amazing stat.
• I tried out barrier and found it to be very nice for me. I was initially just talent point scumming 3 points into it, but eventually decided to keep it at level 4 for high peak. What I particularly liked about it was the shield has a much longer duration, so it was easier to manage it and still get ridiculous shields when combining it with bathe in light. (I also had it on "autocast when no monsters visible" mode, so I would never get caught without a shield up.)
• On a related note, I didn't particularly stack +heal, especially at the end. I had some +heal for a while, but towards then end it got shelved as I was seldom using arcane reconstruction.

I usually play normal/roguelike, and this was my first serious nightmare game (i.e. first to get to the far east), so I played adventure mode. Some comments about that for people new to nightmare:

• In the early game, I was shockingly fragile. This was the cause of my deaths. They were typically "killed in two moves when I was not paying attention." I think I had one death in midgame due to overconfidence, and no danger in late game.
• I usually rely heavily on autoexplore and move with the keypad. This didn't really work for the archmage, as the desired way to start to a fight was to corner snipe with fireflash. Also I didn't want to be at 100% mana because a surprise fight would often end up with Disruption Shield getting cancelled. (Another reason I liked having barrier on autocast when nothing was visible.) I switched over to exploration with Vision, Arcane Eye, and Track, and used the mouse to move from area to area.
• Even if you don't get a lucky item with track, you can make do with a wand of clairvoyance, which are quite common, have a decent range, and a short cooldown. I did this until I found Fortune's Eye.
• The final fight was very easy, probably the easiest I can remember. I opened it by putting Elandar inside a stone wall, and rushed around closing portals. After that the sorcerors were focussed on Aeryn, but she stayed up quite easily through a combination of her heals + my disperse magic and bathe in light. My biggest problem was running low on mana.

Thanks again Mex!

[Mex]

1.2.4 brings about no changes for the build!

Glad people are having success with the guide; I will be keeping this updated with new versions, but feel free to ask questions.

[cctobias]

1.2.4 brings about no changes for the build!

Glad people are having success with the guide; I will be keeping this updated with new versions, but feel free to ask questions.

I haven't actually tried it, but I thought 1.2.4 changed draconic will to not be extended or have its CD reduced by timeless?

[Mex]

I tested it in cheat mode and it still seemed to work, let me know if it doesn't though (the build is still correct even with the nerf, just need to update the interaction).

[grayswandir]

A lot of changes got deferred to 1.3 - I think anything that wasn't directly necessary for ashes.

[windslayer]

Could you please explain the usage of disruption shield?

I tried to keep it up all the time and pop up a damage shield as soon as I see a mob. But still sometimes I got damaged before the shield up so the DS blows like a ballon.

I imagine perhaps I need to somehow keep my mana pool not full at all time. How do you do that?

[Doctornull]

One way to use Disruption Shield early -- when you get it -- is to use it like a Manasurge Rune. As in, don't bother with it until you're out of Mana and you need to recharge, then turn it off when you have enough to finish up what you're doing.

Personally I don't use Disruption Shield as protection until I've got Aegis / Shielding 5/5 and preferably a very high Spellpower, so I'm earning less than 1.0 Mana per point of damage -- usually much less than 1.0 Mana per point of damage. Notice how Mex talks about getting the Mana production down to 0.15 per point of damage? Yeah. As you get closer to that point, it becomes an amazing defense.

[windslayer]

One way to use Disruption Shield early -- when you get it -- is to use it like a Manasurge Rune. As in, don't bother with it until you're out of Mana and you need to recharge, then turn it off when you have enough to finish up what you're doing.

Personally I don't use Disruption Shield as protection until I've got Aegis / Shielding 5/5 and preferably a very high Spellpower, so I'm earning less than 1.0 Mana per point of damage -- usually much less than 1.0 Mana per point of damage. Notice how Mex talks about getting the Mana production down to 0.15 per point of damage? Yeah. As you get closer to that point, it becomes an amazing defense.

Thanks! Although I'm actually gonna defer the my archmage play for the new DLC classes.

[Mex]

1.3 brings about the dreaded Draconic Will nerf. You can no longer extend this ability with Timeless.

Despite this there are absolutely no changes to this build, however you will need to act within the 5 turn window whilst Stone Wall cds. In addition to this make sure you cast Bathe in Light prior to charge up your shield before the walls go down.

[Mankeli]

I'm pretty sure you are missing one point in generics. My archmage has gotten two extra points via escorts but ended up with three extra points compared to this build.

[Mex]

Guess I counted it wrong. Mankeli in relation to your char, I would stick that last point into Shielding over Aegis as it results in more EHP.

Edited guide.

[Arya]

Thanks for this excellent guide!

I've been playing Archmages on Nightmare/Roguelike. So far the furthest I have gotten was dying to the Master in dreadfell.

I switched from Dwarf to Shalore to try out this guide, but I find my character to be very squishy / prone to sometimes getting 1 shotted while autoexploring.

Is it just not possible to play this build and autoexplore (on Nightmare difficulty)? Or do I just need to buy all the HP items I can find early on?

Thanks!

[Theyleon]

Bit of both really. Auto-explore on nightmare and above is very dangerous, especially for a class like archmage that relies on active defences (having to activate shields) rather then passive (e.g. high armour and defensive passives). Buying more hp items is never a bad idea however, especially early, it can give you a much larger margin for error.

[tylor]

Could you please explain the usage of disruption shield?

I tried to keep it up all the time and pop up a damage shield as soon as I see a mob. But still sometimes I got damaged before the shield up so the DS blows like a ballon.

I imagine perhaps I need to somehow keep my mana pool not full at all time. How do you do that?

There is an option in game settings to switch off auto-resting before auto-exploring.

[Mex]

Thanks for this excellent guide!

I've been playing Archmages on Nightmare/Roguelike. So far the furthest I have gotten was dying to the Master in dreadfell.

I switched from Dwarf to Shalore to try out this guide, but I find my character to be very squishy / prone to sometimes getting 1 shotted while autoexploring.

Is it just not possible to play this build and autoexplore (on Nightmare difficulty)? Or do I just need to buy all the HP items I can find early on?

Thanks!

Archmage has a low HP pool so not having any shields or being at full mana means that you will likely die even on the lower difficulties.

It is possible to autoexplore, but it disadvantages you because Archmages benefit from taking enemies on at a long distance, meaning that close combat in the early/mid game is very risky and if you can avoid it in general by LoS sniping you should as it's a zero risk tactic.

In order to be effective at doing this you need to use Vision and Arcane Eye to scout things out before moving onto the next room. Using this diligently means you can never really be caught out by anything.

Sticking Arcane Eye on yourself is a possible lazy autoexplore solution but there's no guarantee.