Sunday 26 October 2008

The Archmage Guide Part 4

Path of Asuryan
I like this line, sorta. But, oddly enough, I don't go into it for damage. When I do spec this line I pick up the T4 morale, Flames of the Phoenix, and Cleansing Flare. The ability to send a large amount of enemies at 100 range flying is arguably better than having a big heal. I still play mainly a healer when I spec this, I just use my built up Tranquility to instantly knockback people when they charge me or when the person I'm healing gets a lot of people on them. And Flames of the Phoenix is just fun. 600dmg per second in a GTAE is quite potent considering how miserable the rest of your damage is. I tend to mix this with Bolstering Boon in Isha so that during keep defenses I can build up Morale faster and use it on the door.

My main beef with Asuryan is that it doesn't really seem to fit the career. I'm a healer, I don't want to be a wanna-be RDPS who can heal himself instantly. I don't want a weak instant nukes. What I want is abilities that allow me to play an Archmage but play him in a way that focuses on Asuryan, i.e. offensive. Rather than focusing on funneling healing Life energies into an enemy, I want to conjure a phoenix that's flames sear my enemies and soothe my allies. I want to surround an ally in pure white flames that soothe his wounds and severely burn enemies.

Level of Mastery: 3
Forked Lancing
Path of Asuryan Tactic

**For those "cool graphics" junkies out there like me, just so you know, this ability does indeed cause 2 extra "lances" to fire from your staff at the other two targets. Unfortuantely, the rather pitiful damage of radiant lance makes this a rather limited use skill.

Level of Mastery: 5
Fury of Asuryan -As the enemy catches your ire, he is suddenly enveloped in in pure, white, burning light.
**Rather weak for it's excessive cooldown and really doesn't synergize well with the Archmage playstyle in my opinion.

Level of Mastery: 7
Dispel Magic
Path of Asuryan Tactic

**I like the blessing removal, if we were more sure what exactly counted as a blessing, there are so many different types of buffs and debuffs and I haven't looked closely enough to try and figure out a rhyme or reason. The damage seems sort low for a effect that is a 25% chance to proc and only *if* they have a blessing.

Level of Mastery: 9
Feel the Winds
-Enemies in the area become more susceptible to the power of the winds.
**A very very short duration for such a limited effect. My personal feedback on this ability has always been that it should reduce all resists. I mean, the "winds" would definitely include Bright Wizard magic, which is Elemental and Corporeal based. And yes, this spell is not linked to your mechanic.

Level of Mastery: 11
Increased Conductivity
Path of Asuryan Tactic

**Doesn't effect Radiant Lance or Searing Touch, and even with this the other spells are fairly low damage or have a long CD.

Level of Mastery: 13
Cleansing Flare
-A massive explosion of prismatic light bursts forth from the target, sending enemies in the area flying away from you.
**My favorite ability in this line, and arguably worth speccing the line for. It's a lot of fun to peek over a keep wall (while on the defense) and cast this on the enemy's ram. It hits anyone anywhere near the door and sends them flying back.

Level of Mastery: 15
Flames of the Phoenix
Path of Asuryan T4 Morale

-The Asuryan Archmage focuses on a spot, conjuring a Phoenix to rise from the spot, rapidly spreading scorching flames to nearby enemies.
**Fun fun skill, not only is the spell graphic cool..but, geez, it's just nice to be able to actually deal some damage.

Path of Vaul
What bothers me about this line is that it seems to be a pale remnant of the old Archmage hype Paul spoke to us of. Taking your enemy's potential and using it against them. Rather, now it's a debuff line with nothing truly unique in it except a healing debuff that you can keep on a single target practically constantly...very nice, but hardly creative.

Seriously though, I'm an Archmage. I don't want to do the same old stuff so many other careers can do. I want to take my enemy's potential and turn it on them. I mean, if it was such a good idea to hype us up with it..why not put it into action? I don't want to simply make my target take less from healing, I want to divert a portion of the healing energy directed at him to one of my allies. I don't want a simple buff that deals a small amount of damage every few seconds, I want a buff I put on an ally that absorbs a portion of the potential of attacks used against him and disperses it all around him. I want my enemy to feel the kinetic energy of his sword swing being sapped by my magic a split second before the energy is converted into a raw bolt of electricity with his name on it.


Level of Mastery: 3
Expanded Control
Path of Vaul Tactic
**Not a bad tactic if you are focused in this line. But, in general, the debuffs are too weak and too brief to make even the the expanded radius very useful.

Level of Mastery: 5
Scatter the Winds
-You set a curse upon the enemy that tears at the very fabric of their being while disrupting the flow of healing energies into them.
**The only other damaging spell in the Path of Vaul, it's definitely worth taking. In organized group play, the ability to reduce the damage on someone being focus fired is amazing. It will also help when going up against a Disciple of Khaine without enough people to overwhelm him.

Level of Mastery: 7
Arcing Power
Path of Vaul Tactic

**Last I tried this tactic it was healing a set amount and rarely, and only on direct damage spells. NOt really an ideal tactic for a line that only has 2 damage spells and both of them DoTs. If it healed a set amount each time you landed an offensive spell, it would fit this line..and even give a glimmer of the old idea of stealing your opponent's potential to help your allies.

Level of Mastery: 9
Law of Age
Path of Vaul Ability
-You invoke a potent curse on enemies in the area near the target, instilling infirmity into them as if they had aged many years.
**Not really a bad skill, but it suffers from the same thing as Rainlord does. Rather negligible effect, for an even shorter time. Also, it doesn't build your mechanic.

Level of Mastery: 11
Golden Aura
Path of Vaul Tactic
**Fun tactic, gives you a 100range AoE DoT (all base AOEs are 80 ft range). Misleading as it really racks up damage in scenarios but doesn't really kill anyone.

Level of Mastery: 13
Mistress of The Marsh
Path of Vaul Ability

-You magically change the terrain in the area. Enemies who try to pass the area will find passage difficult as if wading through a bog, while allies can move freely.
**Not a bad ability, but difficult to place. With a 3 second casting time, and not effected by your High Magic.

Level of Mastery: 15
Funnel EnergyPath of Vaul T4 Morale
-As an Archmage of Vaul you turn the tables on your enemy by making your allies abilities seemingly easier to use, while actually putting the extra strain of their efforts on your enemy's shoulders.
**Honestly never used this skill, 30 feet is a rather short range and I don't generally want to get in the middle of enemies to make it very useful. People tend to stay spread out to avoid AoEs.

If you notice any issues please let me know. For some reason, my original "spelllink" formatting to add in the icons only works the first time you view it. Testing has shown that they have since corrected this issue, but I still have to go through the whole thing again and redo the tags. Which I'll do when I have time

Changelog:
8/30/08
-Made some minor changes, mainly I added a bit more vehement feeling in my preface of each of the Mastery Lines.
8/22/08
-Added section in first post detailing current issues with the Shaman/AM shared mechanic.
8/20/08

-Guide was moved to Archmage Forum (Update: Will soon be moved to the Career Guide forum when implemented).
-Added a preliminary Healer Comparison section in the first thread.
8/19/08
-Added a couple of screenshots since the NDA is up and I can upload them.
-Went through and changed all of the ability listings to make use of the new Spell Link function. Wish I woulda known that was coming before I went through and typed out *everything* and formatted it for easy reading. /hug WHA Staff anyhow though, it's an amazing feature.

Recent In-Game Changes to Archmage:
* Storm of Cronos: The duration has been increased.
* Feel the Winds: The duration has been increased.
* Law of Age: The duration has been increased.
* Cleansing Light: This ability now removes one Ailment or Hex from your target.

....Part 3

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