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

[Mex]

First off, welcome to my guide! This guide is for a Wildfire Archmage build that can complete Madness difficulty. It is based on my own build that I used to complete Madness, which made use of talent scumming. This maintains everything that made my 1.2.2 build good whilst ignoring things that I did not have any use for. Please keep in mind that this is directed primarily for Insane+ players and that some things such as achieving 100% crit chance may simply not be possible on NM-. Despite this, this build is expected to be optimal and at the time of writing arguably the best Archmage possible. With this in mind, and if you have no soul, please enjoy the guide to the strongest class in the game.

What does this guide contain?

1. A brief persuasive section
2. A cheat sheet
3. Build order
4. Build rationale and analysis
5. Terminology explanation for the newer folk
6. Change log

Why Archmage?

Archmage offers the strongest toolset that will allow you to get through, or avoid, every situation the game presents to you. The most remarkable trait of Archmages is that everything scales from spell power, this allows a small focus that will benefit you offensively, defensively, and in utility. The offensive traits of the Archmage are relatively weak in comparison to classes such as Marauder/Berserker whom can dish out serious damage. The play style of the Archmage reflects this, as the harder fights will test your endurance, capability to do sustained damage, and surviving. This is especially true in the late portion of the game. Defensively the Archmage has the most amazing ability to stack several damage shields, leading to extremely high amounts of EHP that can be managed appropriately.

Finally, it has utility options such as the ability to dig, teleport, or erect walls around you, allowing you to control the flows of battle to ensure that your eventual victory will emerge. You have the ability to strip enemies of their most important buffs such as Vitality, or magical sustains with Disperse Magic, which arguably makes you do more “damage” than Marauders or Berserkers. Abilities such as Arcane Eye and Vision let you map things out and approach situations in a tactical manner. This combination of abilities and range makes for a fearsome class that will not disappoint you if played correctly.

Why Wildfire?

Wildfire can remove Vitality, not much more to say really.

Cheat Sheet

Stat distribution priority
Magic, Willpower, and then Cunning

Class Talents [70]
Spell/Arcane: 1/1/1/4
Spell/Fire: 4/1/5/5
Spell/Wildfire: 1/5/5/5
Spell/Earth: 1/1/1/4
Spell/Meta: 3/1/5/4
Spell/Temporal: 1/5/1/5

Generic Talents [50]
Race/Shalore: 1/5/1/5
Tech./Combat T: 0/1/0/0
Spell/Conveyance: 4/4/0/0
Spell/Divination: 4/3/1/0
Spell/Aegis: 4/5/2/4
Celestial/Light: 1/5/0/0

Category Point Order
Spell/Temporal, Spell/Wildfire, Spell/Meta, and Celestial/Light

Inscriptions
[Pre-Draconic Will] Shielding, Wild Physical/Mental, and Manasurge
[Post-Draconic Will] Heroism, Movement, and Manasurge

Prodigies
Cauterize and Draconic Will

Equipment priority
cool down reduction, spell critical chance, critical multiplier, healing modifier, fire damage, spell power, fire penetration, mana [special mention: Track]

Alchemist Quest priority
+2 generic, +2 class +4% spell critical chance

I missed the class points quest!
-1 Time Shield and -1 Burning Wake

Build Order

L1: [1] Arcane Power, [2] Flame, [1] Phase Door, [1] Arcane Eye, [1] Arcane Reconstruction
L2: [3] Flame, [2] Phase Door
L3: [4] Flame, [3] Phase Door
L4: [1] Manathrust, [1] Flameshock, [4] Phase Door
L5: [Insult Shibari]
L6: [1] Shielding
L7: [1] Teleport
L8: [1] Arcane Vortex, [1] Fireflash, [2] Arcane Eye
[Arena]: [4] Arcane Eye
L9: [2] Fireflash], [1] Keen Senses
L10: [3] Fireflash, [1] Congeal Time, [3] Time Shield

L11: [4] Fireflash, [1] Vision
L12: [1] Disruption Shield, [5] Fireflash, [1] Arcane Shield
L13: [2] Disruption Shield, [1] Aegis
L14: [3] Disruption Shield, [2] Shielding
L15: [4] Disruption Shield
L16: [3] Shielding
L17: [4] Shielding
L18: [1] Armor Training
L19: [1] Grace of the Eternals
L20: [1] Blastwave, [1] Burning Wake, [3] Cleansing Flames

L21: [4] Cleansing Flames, [1] Magic of the Eternals
L22: [5] Cleansing Flames, [1] Wildfire, [1] Secrets of the Eternals
L23: [2] Wildfire
L24: [3] Wildfire, [1] Timeless
L25: [4] Wildfire, [1] Stone Skin, [1] Pulverizing Augur, [2] Timeless
L26: [5] Wildfire, [3] Timeless
L27: [1] Mudslide, [4] Timeless
L28: [1] Stone Wall, [5] Timeless
L29: [2] Stone Wall, [2] Aegis
L30: [Insult Shibari once more for good measure]

L31: [3] Aegis
L32: [2] Arcane Reconstruction
L33: [3] Arcane Reconstruction
L34: [2] Magic of the Eternals
L35: [Ask Shibari for forgiveness]
L36: [3] Disperse Magic, [1] Spellcraft, [5] Quicken Spells, [3] Magic of the Eternals
L37: [3] Stone Wall, [4] Arcane Reconstruction
L38: [4] Stone Wall, [4] Magic of the Eternals
L39: [1] Inferno, [5] Magic of the Eternals
L40: [3] Inferno

L41: [4] Inferno, [2] Keen Senses
L42: [5] Inferno, [3] Keen Senses
L43: [1] Time Prison, [1] Healing Light
L44: [1] Essence of Speed, [1] Bathe in Light
L45: [3] Essence of Speed
L46: [4] Essence of Speed, [2] Bathe in Light
L47: [5] Essence of Speed, [3] Bathe in Light
L48: [4] Time Shield, [4] Bathe in Light
L49: [5] Time Shield, [5] Bathe in Light
L50: [5] Burning Wake, [4] Metaflow, [4] Teleport, [2] Arcane Shield, [5] Shielding

Analysis and Rationale

Class Talents [+2 from Alchemist Quest]

Spell/Arcane

[1] Arcane Power: Gives a decent bonus to spell power and arcane resistances. The mana cost is a bit too high for what it offers and we don’t have points to spare anyway so don’t bother using this. 1 point for unlock.

[1] Manathrust: It may be a good idea to juggle your last points into this skill until you no longer need it as it becomes a beam at level 3, just remember to take them out before further skilling. This is very nice to use in the very early game along with Flame or in the mid game to deal with luminous horrors. Once again, not worth investing more in as you will never use this once you get Wildfire running (around Old Forest). 1 point for unlock.

[1] Arcane Vortex: Same as Manathrust.

[4] Disruption Shield: Excellent shield which utilises empty mana to give you insane EHP. The Aegis talent will increase your max mana capacity along with this. This is amazing at all stages of the game. In the early/mid it can be used to regen mana and in the late game it provides a very secure buffer along with other shields. Always keep this on and be careful not to accidentally break it when at full mana. You will only need 4 points in this as it caps at 0.15 mana per damage anyway.

Spell/Fire

[4] Flame: Bread and butter spell that becomes a beam at 4 points of investment. This remains solid in the early/late game. Not so much in the mid game where you will usually try to avoid direct confrontation. 4 points is sufficient here.

[1] Flameshock: This is an excellent skill in the early game, but drops off very quickly as stuff becomes stun immune or gains high resistances. The damage is also sub-par and only works if you manage to apply it. Simply too unreliable to place further points in it. 1 point to unlock.

[5] Fireflash: Excellent skill that will carry you through the later early stage of the game and beyond. The reason why this is so good is because it has incredible range, damage, and allows you to corner snipe creatures. 5 to get the highest damage and range.

[5] Inferno: Very strong DoT that cannot be purged by enemies. Lasts a very long time, which gives Cleansing Flames a better chance to trigger. The mana cost is very high, so it is best to leave this until the late game, when it becomes less of a strain on your mana. 5 to get the highest damage and duration.

Spell/Wildfire

[1] Blastwave: Not very interesting, knockback is too unreliable for this to be used effectively. Damage is also subpar. 1 for unlock.

[5] Burning Wake: Leaves a DoT on the ground. Does great damage as you can stack several spells and allows Cleansing Flames to trigger. 5 points.

[5] Cleansing Flames: 50% chance to remove an enemy buff or cleanse a debuff from yourself at 5 points. This will get rid of Vitality (this gets up to 16k heals per turn) and is what makes Wildfire the only viable mage build on Madness. Other than that it’s just generally great. 5 points.

[5] Wildfire: Allows you to not kill yourself! Gives a nice bonus to damage and a great one to resistance penetration, which you will need. 5 points.

Spell/Earth

[1] Stone Skin: What is this a joke? 1 to unlock.

[1] Pulverizing Augur: Extremely strong ability, that allows you to dig with enemies in sight. The main use of this is to create zig/zag tunnels to filter enemies and corner snipe them. You can use this to dig your own Stone Walls. It also does decent damage if you need it in the early game. 1 because we won’t be digging further than 1 square anyway.

[1] Mudslide: Can be used in the early game to knock stuff back and deal some damage, you probably won’t be skilling this until you need Stone Wall however. 1 point for unlock.

[4] Stone Wall: One of, if not the, strongest utility spell in the game. You can use this to rest up and allow your important abilities to come off cd, such as Draconic Will. This can be used in combination with a teleport to start making zig zag tunnels as well. Furthermore it can be used in vaults to block vision of enemies that are “In vault”, notably useful (arguably essential) in Vor Armory. Keep in mind that stuff can dig, walk through walls, into this and that you need to place it with nothing next to you. At 4 points of investment it becomes targetable and has a suitable duration to let stuff come off cd.

Spell/Meta

[3] Disperse Magic: One of the most underrated spells and an extremely powerful one on Insane+. This allows you to get rid of the +HP sustains such as Blurred Mortality. Furthermore you can remove enemy Wildfires, Fearscapes, Essences of Speed, etc… It can also be used on yourself to remove magical debuffs. Only need 3 points to make it targetable.

[1] Spellcraft: Gives a chance to gain a 20% damage increase. The damage prevention is irrelevant and actually negative for Wildfire mages. 1 point for unlock.

[5] Quicken Spells: Spell cd reduction is probably the most powerful attribute in the game and this gives you 30%. Enables better chaining of spells and more pew pew. Runes will also benefit from this as they are considered spells. 5 points.

[4] Metaflow: Allows resetting of spells. Great to reset Inferno, or absolutely amazing to reset Stone Wall with. This will allow you to cast more spells effectively improving all your outputs, including shields. Only 4 points as level 5 adds no benefit.

Spell/Temporal

[1] Congeal Time: Same issue that Flameshock and Blastwave have, very hard to apply later in the game and requires 5 points to do anything significant. 1 for unlock.

[5] Time Shield: Instant shield that stacks. The healing it gives you is fairly irrelevant past the early game. This remains very good at all stages of the game and is the reason you will want to pick up Temporal at 10. The shield it gives is relatively huge early game and is nice to use in a pinch or add onto. 5 because it benefits nicely with multipliers.

[1] Time Prison: Can be used on escorts, other than that, no real use. 1 for unlock.

[5] Essence of Speed: Amazing speed buff, combined with Grace of the Eternals, lets you get ~200%, which is significant as you act twice as fast. The mana cost is extremely high so you will want to avoid taking this until much later in the game. 5 because speed.

Generic Talents [+2 from Alchemist Quest]

Race/Shalore

[1] Grace of the Eternals: Gives you a nice speed buff. 1 point as it only gains a cd reduction.

[5] Magic of the Eternals: Increased crit chance and damage, simply amazing to reach that 100% crit chance. 5 points.

[1] Secrets of the Eternals: The onscreen effect is more annoying that any benefit this may provide. 1 to unlock.

[5] Timeless: Reduces negative effects which is nice. This will double (max 5) any of your beneficial benefits and reduce all your cds by 5. Absolutely insane and the main reason we picked Shalore as it straight up makes the character better. 5 points.

Technique/Combat Training

[0] Thick Skin: Bigger shields benefit us more than more points in this.

[1] Armour Training: You will need 1 point of this to equip metal gauntlets/boots. If you for some don’t find any worthwhile then you may skip out on this point, however it is unlikely and you may find some later. 1 point for equip options.

Spell/Conveyance

[4] Phase Door: Gives you the ability to reposition away from enemies or escape a bad situation to let stuff cool down. You can also target enemies, semi-reliably in the early/mid game. I would not attempt this in the late. If you attempt to traverse walls there is a chance of failure, but I found in the late game that this reduced significantly. 4 points so you may choose your destination.

[4] Teleport: Long distance but fairly inaccurate teleport. This is good to leave at 1 until very late in the game as it can be used when Phase Door is on cd or you’re in a bad situation. It also gives you a free ticket out of vaults. We get 4 points in this because it makes High Peak much easier to traverse without dying, pretty much mandatory on Madness unless you enjoy getting cheesed.

[0] Displacement Shield: We don’t have enough points to invest into this. I found that throughout my entire Madness run that it NEVER triggered, this is because it gets hit after your damage shield. Furthermore it’s a fairly weak shield due to its unreliability.

[0] Probability Travel: Mana cost is way too high, apparently used to be good pre-nerf, but similar things can be achieved with the tools already available.

Spell/Divination

[4] Arcane Eye: Knowing where the enemies are is one of the most important parts of the game. This provides extremely strong utility as you can put it on a target and it will follow it around (even yourself). More importantly however is that it gives you stealth and invisibility detection that does not require ANY checks, which means you will always see enemies. Excellent skill and underrated, 4 points for all the bells and whistles.

[3] Keen Sense: Lets you get closer to that 100% crit chance. It doesn’t gain any significant benefit past level 3 for it to be worth further points. You may achieve 100% crit chance without it if you’re lucky, so keep that in mind. 3 points for max efficiency.

[1] Vision: Disgustingly useful. Knowing the layout of dungeons ensures you know where rooms and potential enemies are. Information is key and this adds very nicely to your package, especially for Dreadfell. 1 point wonder if there ever was one.

[0] Premonition: Not worth the investment, especially on Insane+ where things gain many more abilities, hence elemental types, which requires you to have balanced resistances.

Spell/Aegis

[4] Arcane Reconstruction: Great in the early game and downright class defining in the late mid/late game. Used with Arcane Shield up it allows you to generate a damage shield when healed. This is the reason we stack heal mod, spell crit, and crit mult, as it greatly benefits defensively and offensively. This spell can crit. 4 points as the last 1 doesn’t offer as much efficiency.

[5] Shielding: Improves all your shields, insanely good. At just a 4 point investment increases shield durations by 1, which doesn’t sound like much but is significant as it improves the heal damage shield duration which is already short. 5 to get the most benefit from shields.

[2] Arcane Shield: Makes shield from heal, like Jesus makes wine from water. Scales very badly with levels, but it doesn’t matter as even at 1 point it serves its purpose. 2 points is the break off for efficiency.

[4] Aegis: Pretty much doubles all your shields, this allowed me to get around 15k in only damage and time shield in the late game. Keep in mind that this doubles your mana capacity , effectively bringing your Disruption Shield up to 7k. Add with this Heroism and you will sit at ~24k EHP. Absolutely insane but 4 points is all we have.

Celestial/Light

[1] Healing Light: It’s like Arcane Reconstruction’s little brother with a shorter cd. Unfortunately the heal is actually not that good in comparison, but more importantly if you chain Bathe in Light and Arcane Reconstruction properly you will never use this. This spell can crit. 1 point for unlock.

[5] Bathe in Light: Completely broken skill that was even recently buffed (lol what Shibari). This can crit as well, which was giving me ~100% heal mod in the end game. Furthermore it will HEAL your shield?? (what is this skill?) ~500 per turn for me at that point. It also refreshes your damage shield duration (as if this couldn’t get more ridiculous), which allows easy chaining with Arcane Reconstruction. You can cast this first, right click to cancel the shield and cast Arcane Reconstruction to benefit from the heal mod, also advisable to do when you have 1 turn left on the heal mod buff. Did I mention this is a spell? Shibari done goofed, skill is broken as hell, 5.

[0] Barrier: Was nerfed recently, as was Healing Light. You probably wouldn’t be using this anyway as it takes a turn to cast for a weak damage shield. Sub-par despite being able to crit.

[0] Providence: Arguably very strong. However completely unneeded for this build. As you will be picking up Celestial/Light when you get Draconic Will you can simply avoid it all together. Furthermore it removes 1 per turn and if you’re getting more than 1 debuff then you’re in trouble. I never used this skill once, just skilled it because I could with talent point scumming.

Prodigies

Cauterize: Damage smearing and one-hit protection. Swift Hands is a possible contender for this spot, but Cauterize will help you get through the trickier parts of the game where you may need to take calculated risks. Play as if you didn’t have this prodigy as relying on it will get you killed.

Draconic Will: Most broken prodigy. Allows you to essentially ignore a massive part of the game, which is being debuffed. It also combos with Stone Wall in the small turn window as it cds bringing Shalore up to the best race. Once you get this you gain a significant edge. Essential for the last fight, remember to manage your cd with Stone Wall, Metaflow, and Timeless to get the most out of this.

Inscriptions

Infusions

Wild: This is amazing and will be very much needed all the way until the late game. I actually kept mine until winning. Aim for a physical/mental or physical as they are the most important. Damage reduction is nice but you should never use it for that purpose.

Heroism: Excellent as it basically gives you another stacking shield. This will also give you extra empty mana for more Disruption Shield. Furthermore it gives you a bigger HP pool. Extra stats for mag and cun is also nice. You will want to replace your damage shield for one of these when you get Celestial/Light.

Movement: Excellent infusion that allows repositioning. Very useful with Stone Wall to get a clean cast. Replace your wild for this once you gain Draconic Will.

Primal: Terrible as it can accidentally remove magical debuffs. The affinity heal is irrelevant as we do not lower our HP pool.

Regeneration: No one hit protection and deals with HP, irrelevant for Archmage.

Healing: Terrible stats or it may have been worth considering. Damage shield is already covered by Arcane Reconstruction, so this is not necessary.

Sun: Irrelevant, possibly a joke?

Insidious Poison: Irrelevant.

Wild Growth: Irrelevant.

Runes

Shielding: You will want to hold onto and upgrade this until you get Celestial/Light, by which point it will have fallen off. It can’t be stacked so Heroism is a superior choice once you start doing prides.

Reflection Shield: Haven’t come across this in my run, treat it the same as a shielding rune. Normal Shielding runes will outclass this; higher shield is more important than the reflection.

Manasurge: Keep it from the start and keep upgrading it. Don’t be afraid to cancel it to re-cast it in the late game. This allows you to control your mana levels without using Disruption Shield, which you must keep available as a buffer in the late game.

Phase Door: Unreliable, get rid of this for a wild straight away.

Controlled Phase Door: Waste of a slot, we already have this! Also extremely rare.

Vision: Useless.

Heat Beam, Biting Gale, Acid Wave, Frozen Spear: These are worse than the wilds as they don’t give damage reduction and cannot remove a physical and mental for example. Only useful for undead whom cannot use infusions.

Lightning: Lets you avoid 1 attack completely per turn. Borderline, but we have no space for this.

Rune of the Rift: Useless, avoid.

Equipment Guide

Track is valuable throughout the entire game, you may wish to scum for gloves with this ego as it will make your life a lot easier, can be found in the Derth shop.

Early Game

The most important part of the early game is surviving in the first place. Look out for + HP gear in the early game in shops as it is what helps you get through this phase. When drowning the denizens (boss/uniques) of Last Hope you will find tier 5 items that can provide a strong boost to smooth out the early game. Thinking HP in terms of percentages helps understand why. +30 HP when you have a 100 HP pool is a 30% increase. You will eventually want to get rid of this kind of gear as your shields come up to speed and vastly surpass this. Some players also swear by tentacle totems, but as an Archmage you have strong range options and do not really need this.

Mid Game

At this stage you can start considering items that improve damage, but should hold onto +HP items until your shields are reliable enough, start considering the main stats listed in the cheat sheet at this point.

Late Game

You will need to be aiming for cd reduction to bring yourself down to 50%, which enables chaining. Look out for this ego on boots and pick axes, they are rare but you will probably find one of each, I found around five total in my run. I can’t stress how important this is, they take priority over ANY item you have in that slot. Critical chance needs to be at 100% to ensure you don’t miss out on a proc and screw yourself over with a weaker spell. Critical hit multiplier benefits you offensively and defensively and is thus higher up. Heal mod is very much underrated, but it essentially improves your damage shield and is thus very much a significant stat to look out for. Increasing fire damage/penetration and spell power will give you more damage, the latter of which also improves shields and such as everything scales off this for Archmages. Mana is less important than you may think, but is still worth keeping in mind so you may comfortably cast spells, keep in mind that Manasurge scales off max mana.

Terminology

Corner snipe: As the name implies, an AoE ability that can be cast at an angle to hit another target out of sight. This is extremely powerful as you don’t need to directly engage enemies. Track, Arcane Eye, and Digging are all used in combination to create ideal situations for this to be used.

EHP: Effective Hit Points, how many hit points you have after calculation (damage shield 100 + hp 100 = 200 EHP)

Changelog

[1.2.4]: No changes.
[1.2.5]: No changes.
[1.3.x]: Edited to reflect Draconic Will nerf, but no changes to the build.
[1.4.x]: No changes.

Notes

Comments and questions are welcome!

[Marson]

Vera nice! I'm modifying my Insane build using these ideas to see how well I can apply it to Madness. I knew I was sub-optimal and I really like what you've come up with.

[Mex]

Build order has been added!

Please note that this is for Insane+ and as such the timing for the Celestial/Light tree is much later, feel free to add to it earlier if you desire, but it only really works when you have the other generics invested in anyway.

[sorro]

Looks good! I will try to beat nightmare right now with this!

[Zanatar]

Wow thank you for this.

Mex: I`m hoping we will see more indepth guides like this from you for other classes. This is what we are missing , especially for version 1.2.3 . Thank you for taking the time to make this guide.

I still consider myself new to the game..and have not yet even unlocked wildfire for archmages yet . I have only beaten the game on Normal. But I will for sure use your guide and hopefully others, once I get further experience . I absolutely love following builds and guides like this. The leveling order especially , I am absolutely grateful for. Thank you!

[Dhurke]

Hi,

Interesting guide. Don't get the references to Shibari...

Amy tips on how to survive the the first quest... Almost made it out alive last time.

[Mex]

I would advise skipping the first quest on Insane+. It is possible to do, but you would need to be lucky with rares or extremely patient. The benefit is minimal in my eyes and as such I skip.

I may write other guides, but playing on Insane+ is a fairly big time commitment. Theory craft based guides are a possibility as I have an idea of what is required.

A short note on playstyle:

Never take risks
Always attack from a distance if possible
Be aware of your enemies' location
Force favourable conditions by either keeping distance or funneling enemies 1 by 1
Use line of sight to your advantage
Always make sure to retreat with some kind of back up shields still available in case you mess up
Manage your mana and don't let it run out
Most importantly don't cut corners, take a break if you're not in the right mind set
Plan how you will tackle each zone/enemy using inspect and area information

Shibari is a dev, who answered lots of my questions when I was new to the game.

[Dhurke]

Mex,

If you skip the first quest as archmage, won't you be without a rod of recall?

[Mex]

You get the rod of recall from the first boss/random boss you kill.

[Xandor Tik'Roth]

Complete noob question but... do you count on getting an anorithil escort question to grab the Celestial/Light tree? Or is there another way to grab it that I'm not remembering?

[Mex]

I do rely on getting an anorithil escort, with nine escort chances, there is a good chance (66% iirc) to find at least 1 anorithil. Alternatively, if you don't like playing the dice, you would have to skip out on Cauterize to get Worldly Knowledge. If you're playing on Madness then I think the former is just necessary (ie start scum to find anorithil). If you get unlucky on Insane- you don't necessarily "need" Celestial/Light, but your build comparatively will be much weaker, but will probably still be able to win the game if you play correctly.

It is also possible to reroll escorts by saving before entering a new level on the zone, however I'll leave you to judge whether you consider that cheating or not.

[Dhurke]

Another question:
Without Spellcraft, wouldn't you damage yourself with fire? Your write "The damage prevention is irrelevant and actually negative for Wildfire mages" which I don't get, you could you explain?
Or do you rely on 5/5 wildfire directly so to get the 91% resist?

[Marson]

Or do you rely on 5/5 wildfire directly so to get the 91% resist?

Yup.


"[5] Wildfire: Allows you to not kill yourself! Gives a nice bonus to damage and a great one to resistance penetration, which you will need. 5 points."

[jotwebe]

Well, I don't have anything to quibble here.

I'm surprised that Bathe in Light/Arcane Reconstruction gets that powerful with Madness gear - I'd have hesitated forgoing the inscription slot, but it does make sense. The build order is a nice touch which I feel many guides lack, even if it's just a general "this talent is for level 40+" for example with Essence of Speed.

I'd note that runes do benefit from spell cooldown reduction - still undoubtedly worse than a phys+mental wild, but then these don't show up every game. Single digit cd heat beams begin to look attractive in comparison with a plain physical wild.

[Mex]

Well, I don't have anything to quibble here.

I'm surprised that Bathe in Light/Arcane Reconstruction gets that powerful with Madness gear - I'd have hesitated forgoing the inscription slot, but it does make sense. The build order is a nice touch which I feel many guides lack, even if it's just a general "this talent is for level 40+" for example with Essence of Speed.

I'd note that runes do benefit from spell cooldown reduction - still undoubtedly worse than a phys+mental wild, but then these don't show up every game. Single digit cd heat beams begin to look attractive in comparison with a plain physical wild.

Yes, I forgot to mention that runes are counted as spells and will therefore benefit as such (guide modified). Even with this consideration, as you have noted, the wilds are better if you get the double. Arguably the dmg reduction is significant early/mid game when you still haven't got resistances from items however. In the late game of course it doesn't really matter as you have Draconic Will anyway.

Another question:
Without Spellcraft, wouldn't you damage yourself with fire? Your write "The damage prevention is irrelevant and actually negative for Wildfire mages" which I don't get, you could you explain?
Or do you rely on 5/5 wildfire directly so to get the 91% resist?

As noted by Marson, furthermore Cleansing Flames will not work if it doesn't damage you (iirc); I think you would also need dmg shield penetration to gain this benefit. I didn't find it necessary to make use of this past the mid game where it's relatively easy to enable it by keeping just dispersion shield up.