Insane Aether Archmage win

[Einzbern]

http://te4.org/characters/131447/tome/a ... f045ce9411

Race choice seemed pretty obvious to me, but now that I've won I'm not sure I'd choose Higher again. The extra arcane resist for Aether Permeation was what drew me to Higher, but it ended up being super easy to cap my arcane resist. Without the 34% from Arcane Power, I was still capped. I barely used Highborn's Bloom, so I don't think I would've spent as many points into it knowing what I do now.

I didn't really know what to do for my second prodigy, so I decided to give Arcane Amplification Drone a try and it ended up being surprisingly good. It was pretty awkward at first before I learned how to best make use it of it. I also figured Spellcraft would have kept me safe from its AoE, but alas it did not. My strategy on using it for rares/uniques/randbosses was to come at them in such a way I could see them from 10 tiles away. I would place the drone down so that my Mana Thrusts would hit both the drone and my target, pop Aether Avatar, and go to town. Most things did not live for the duration of the drone except for some of the High Peak floor bosses, final bosses, and super bosses.

Most of my deaths were preventable. There was a bug on occasion with Zomnibus Addon Pack, classic UI, and negative life that would cause my game to crash, so my first death (forgot what to) isn't actually there. My second death was due to an idiotic mistake when fighting The Master with a gunslinger banshee in tow. Third death was to a stealth slime when I thought I was safe. Fourth death was to a Shadowblade floor boss that one shot me with shadowstep(didn't think I would need shields). Fifth death was just from learning what I could safely do with Atmathon.

Final fight ended up being surprisingly easy. I put Argoniel in a stonewall, dispelled Elandar, popped drone on Elandar, and went to town. Elandar was at maybe 10-20% before Argoniel got out. Ended up winning without closing any portals with Aeryn still alive.

Atmathon ended up being surprisingly easy as well. I just dispelled his buffs, got away, waited for him to giant leap, popped drone, and went to town. I would kite around after while Heroism/other things came up, and just repeated. Took about 4-5 drones for him to die.

I figured Lianiil would be a lot harder since I wouldn't be able to kite her, but again it was a super easy fight. Dispelled her buffs at the start of the fight, got to range 9-10 and just went to town. The interesting thing I found was that the majority of turns she was recasting her buffs, so I was never really in danger of dying.

This has easily been the most powerful character I've won with so far.

[grobblewobble]

Nice win! I like the creative use of arcane drones.

Race choice seemed pretty obvious to me, but now that I've won I'm not sure I'd choose Higher again.

It sounds like Overseer of Nations was pretty awesome, though. Actually, reading this makes me want to give Higher a whirl for the ability to snipe mooks, I never play that race.

[jenx]

hmmmm - very interesting indeed. well done, that is creative and unique. has anyone even won with higher before on insane? i too never play it.

[posetcay]

Congratulations on the win, but what do you mean by "went to town"? That really confused me. Also what race would you pick over Higher? Shalore?

[Micbran]

"Went to town" is an idiom in English that means in this context... Probably just casted every spell on the boss until they died, no stopping, no healing.

Also, "went ham" is another idiom that is quite similar to "went to town"