Playing as the Archmage
First off, let me say that there are a few things you can do to really help playing as an Archmage.
-Go to your options and set it to show ally's health bars when Hurt. This allows you to heal outside your group very effectively and also allows you to heal while watching the action.
-Knowing your own skills is important, but perhaps more importantly is knowing your enemy's skills. You need to know things like when a Witch Elf jumps out at you she likely put a Spell Barb on you and you're going to take damage for each spell you cast.
-You're a healer, heal. Most of the careers in this game can deal damage to a far greater extent than you. Your damage just isn't very noticeable. Feel free to stack up DoTs while on the run, but the extra damage you allow an ally to put out by keeping them alive easily outdoes whatever you could do.
Solo PvE: You solo fairly well, as should be expected. While you do have to stack all of your DoTs in order to do respectable damage and you don’t kill as fast, the fact that as you fight you’ll build up instant heals means you usually have little to fear unless you get in way over your head.
Group PvE: You can easily fill the main healer slot no matter what your spec. You will have to heal though, your damage is nowhere near good enough to compete with a DPS, even if you spec for it, and people will want you for your ability to keep people alive. Luckily, through healing you will gain more potent damaging effects. A good tactic if you are concentrating on just healing is to use your built-up tranquility on Transfer Force or, if you have it, Balance Essence for some added damage and healing.
**Note: At the time I wrote this Balance Essence wasn’t worth getting, but I threw that in there since I’m sure they’ll, eventually, give it a boost.
Solo PvP: If you happen to find yourself in a 1 on 1 situation, you will usually do well. Especially if you take advantage of stacking DoTs, detaunting, and spam healing yourself. It's slow, but it works sometimes. Okay, so it's only really worked for me once versus a Chosen before they got their aura buffs (i.e. they didn't have the auras that increase my cast times, increase their resistances, or hurt you whenever you cast an offensive spell). In normal RvR, you should stick to your allies for protection. As Duty so keenly put it, "My Maurader thinks you guys taste good with ketchup." You are fragile, and when under assault all you really have is a knockback and a prayer. And despite the plethora of Elven Gods... I've found it's better to just stay back or find a convient cliff to knock them off.
Group PvP: You actually do very well here. Archmages and Shaman have possibly the most boring line-up of base heals, but they get the job done. While your damage is usually negligible, it’s not a bad idea at all to build-up some force while running or when otherwise free to do so, as an instant Boon of Hysh is quite potent.
Current Issues with the Archmage
While the current version of the mechanic is by and large better than the old one, currently, the Archmage and Shaman mechanic share an issue. This issue is that while the idea is sound, the actual implementation runs into some issues. +25% to spells that do a noticeable fraction of the damage of DPS spells really isn't noticeable for one. It's a minor effect that you feel even at 5 points isn't much. Not in a game where TTK(Time to Kill) is meant to be so high.
Furthermore, a 20% decreased casting time per point is a terrible implementation of "speeding up" a spell. With full High Magic can you honestly tell me a reason to use it on Healing Energy rather than Boon of Hysh or Blessing of Isha or even Shield of Saphery? The last 3 options get far more from the mechanic than does Healing Energy, the only time you *might* use it is when someone doesn't need much healing but is taking steady damage. In that case though, you'd be better off doing a +25% Lambent Aura. At rank 40 5HM adds about 375 more healing to it, or 75 healing per tick. For steady healing purposes this is clearly the option. The fact is, these spells values were balanced around their cast times. At 5 HM there is no cast time so all there is is the values, this means that spells that are weaker because they are faster (Healing Energy) aren't worth using with your mechanic.
The fact that there is any single spell that it's never *worth* using the mechanic on is evidence of a severe flaw. Yes, an instant Boon or Blessing is amazing, who cares about Healing Energy right? Or Radiant Lance for that matter? None of them are really worth it compared to the other options. Yet, people seem to think that because the other options aren't entirely bad this is not an issue. I do not agree.
The next issue is our Mastery Lines. They are far too cut and dry. I'll go more into this further down on each thread individually... but I can sum it up rather quickly. Mix it up! Be creative! I'm an Archmage, I wield the winds of magic in harmony and am capable of feats that make other lesser mages gape. I don't want a mastery line that focuses on spam healing, or a weak RDPS wanna-be line, or a line that takes the "stealing the potential of the enemy and using it against them" description of the Archmage and turns it into a line of marginally effective, short duration debuffs. Most of which completely ignore your mechanic.
Agree or disagree, it's just an opinion. I am only speaking of the mechanical issues both careers share. The AM's "niche" still needs some work but this would go a long way towards letting both careers truly fullfill their role rather than just getting the occasional "boost".
Part 1... ...Part3
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