Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Class Guides

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Class Guides – Archmage

Monday, July 20th, 2009 · Filed Under age of reckoning, the land of the dead, war online, warhammer asia, warhammer build guide, warhammer job change, warhammer online

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The Archmage is the support class of the Shining Guard Army (High Elves Army). Archmages are masters of healing, magical spells used to destroy enemies and they can use all the Winds of Magic at once.

The following guide is written by Dastion.

Mythic has stated their intention to give the Archmage (and Shaman) a thorough review in the near future, this includes the mechanic. Therefore, I am holding off until then to properly update this Guide since anything I update now might simply invalidate itself in the next patch cycle. Rather than delete this guide, I am leaving it unchanged so as to provide a template for the update. In the meantime, if you have any questions, concerns, or input please feel free to hit me up.

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If you notice any errors or outdated information, please message me so I can update/correct this guide. Thanks!

This is an all-inclusive (read: long) guide to the Archmage. I will mainly focus on the details, giving opinions of the current state of abilities where I feel they are needed. Please, do not take my opinions too much to heart because they are, just that, opinions. The last thing I want you to do is finish reading this guide and be swayed that the Archmage is either incredibly overpowered, broken, useless, ect. My intent is to inform and guide your knowledge of this career so you can form your own opinion about whether or not you’d like to play the career. Though, if there is one thing you take from this guide it should be that Mythic has created a game where each career has it’s own allure and unique feel. Every career is so fun in it’s own way that you really cannot get by playing a different career, and often not even by playing that career’s mirror.

With that said, let’s move on to the one career that, despite my fickle nature, kept drawing me back whether I had to start at level 1, or was given a template.

http://i37.tinypic.com/w1uqgn.jpg

The Archmage

Screenshot of mine that won a spot on the Herald

To play an Archmage is to be among the best practioneers of magic. No, this doesn’t mean that you out heal and out damage everyone. It means you’re exceptionally good at what you intend to do. This does not always mean being the best at each individual aspect, but, in this case, having a wide variety of options. Asking, why then, do Archmages not have an option to become DPS is much like asking why you can’t play an Empire Wizard other than the Bright. The simple answer is that, yes, Archmages exist who specialize their skills around being purely destructive. You’ll see plenty of NPC Archmages that fling lightning or other various effects. But, the fact is, just as the playable Empire caster happens to only include those of the Bright College, so then does the playable Archmages only include those who chose to follow mainly the Lores of Life, Light, and, of course, High Magic in order to better assist in all aspects of combat.

The State of the Archmage
I wondered whether to put this at the end or at the beginning, but I believe I’d rather tell you the blunt truth up front rather than dazzle you with all the goodies you’ll get then, possibly, bring you down.

One thing that will be apparent is that the Archmage is a near duplicate in mechanics and abilities to the Shaman. Our button glow for our mechanic actually still has the “Mork and Gork” skulls among the flames. But, this just means Archmage is a career with a lot of room to grow. Most careers have started off very similar to their mirrors and then diverged. The Archmage has a lot of potential, he’s just lacking his niche. His spells look cool and he has many of the same abilities of the Shaman and some very unique spells of his own, but he just doesn’t excel at anything except potentially at widespread debuffs that aren’t very effective at the moment.

The last thing I want is to turn this guide into an “An Archmage runs into a Shaman…” thread, but, currently despite all the physical impossibilities, the High Elven Archmage comes up short to the Goblin Shaman. This is not a thing of imbalance or favoritism, it’s simply the fact that the Shaman has been around longer than most other healers, has had more time for design and time to ‘grow’ into his unique niche.

So, while I left my comments blunt and honest, please remember that this is an MMO and it’s all about growth and change and the Archmage as a lot of room to grow.

The Archmage Mechanic – High Magic
**Note that this description is mostly of my own making. I felt Mythic’s description of the AM mechanic was lacking and difficult to understand. Thus the reason people find it hard to understand why a shaman’s Gork spells build Mork Waagh, and vice versa, yet an AM’s Force spells build Force and Tranq spells build Tranq. Based off of the recent BW mechanic changes, I was able to ascertain a “trend” in how the Winds of Magic seem to work in WAR and used that in trying to make the mechanic sound “cooler” and less like they just dropped the Drain Magic Mechanic idea, gave us the Shaman mechanic, and gave us a vague and elfy description.

High Magic, also known as True Magic and represented by the runic word Qhaysh, is the Lore of the High Elves. To first understand High Magic, and how the Archmage wields it, you must first understand the cruder, yet no less destructive, way that Bright Wizards wield the Winds of Aqshy. As a Bright Wizard conjures the flames of Aqshy into being, a sort of lingering magic, called Combustion, fills his body. The Bright Wizard funnels this build up of magic into his spells, making them even more powerful than they would normally be. However, doing so results in even more of the volatile magic filling him, possibly even harming him in the process. The only way to rid himself of this dangerous build-up is to either refrain from using his magics, letting the lingering Combustion drain away, or, rather than using the Combustion to empower a spell, forming this raw power of Aqshy into a powerful blast called a Meltdown.

Elves are more suited for wielding the Winds of Magic than Humans. Not only do they not suffer from the detrimental effects that humans do, but they know the secret to using this magical build-up safely. Archmages recognize two separate types of magical build up in their bodies when they weave the winds, based on the intent for which the spell is woven. Destructive or offensive spells, build up a sort of magic Archmages call “Force”, while healing or supportive magics build up what they refer to as “Tranquility”. Whereas the Bright Wizard focuses his power into spells that further build Combustion, resulting in a net gain, Archmages focus the lingering magics into a spell of the opposing type. This counter balancing effect results in not only a more potent spell, but they negate any potential backlash and further building up of the magic to unstable levels. It is through this careful balancing of the winds of magic, and build up of magic, that Archmages are able to produce a variety of powerful effects.

In game terms, this mechanic is represented as a Ying Yang. As you cast either destructive or support magics one side of the Ying Yang will light up and build a “point” of High Magic per casting. Destructive spells build Force and Healing spells build Tranquility. The next time you cast the opposite type of spell all of the built-up magic is consumed. Spells which benefit from High Magic do not build it. Each point of High Magic will either swiften or empower a spell. Spells with a casting time will cast 20% faster per point of High Magic that goes into them, this even includes the 6 second cast resurrection spell “Gift of Life”, allowing the Archmage to instantly resurrect allies with enough Force to balance the casting of the spell with. Instant spells are empowered, gaining +5% increased effectiveness per point, this includes channeled spells such as Searing Touch.

Archmage Spell Graphics
The Archmage gets a wide variety of spells and effects. Unlike other casters there is little “theme” to each of his spells. A Bright Wizard’s spells are all fire, explosions, and smoke while a sorceress deals mainly in shadows and pain. But the Archmage spell effects are quite varied. Heals are generally represented by radiant lights and swirling colors. While damaging spells range from a prismatic spear of light lancing into your enemies to lightning that shoots from the tip of your staff. Mainly the spells seem to fall along the lines of shimmering lights, prismatic rainbow effects, and storm type effects. Though there are a few exceptions.

How the Archmage Compares
An important thing to note is that Mythic prefers we do not directly compare healers. Each career should be taken on it’s own and for what it can attribute. Unfortunately, this inevitably results in comparisons since, how can you gauge your true contribution except by comparison to the rest of your archetype? So, while I will provide this section at the request of others, I urge you to not forget that I cannot possibly cover all of the pros and cons, similarities and differences, there will always be one thing a career gets it’s peers do not. This is by design, even in DAoC Mythic built the careers and factions on a “similiar yet different” concept. Careers that fill the same role are similar at their core, especially those of the same sub-archetype (Melee Healer, Flex Healer, and Nuker Healer being those sub-archetypes), yet they will have intentional differences despite in order to give them their own unique feel.

The Goblin Shaman
This career is your mirror, or as some devs prefer to put it, your “analog”. You share a mechanic and a playstyle. Both careers have a different “feel” despite this. To be quite honest, the Shaman is currently better at you in most things. You might have a slight advantage in the debuff area, simply by virtue of Radiant Gaze being able to be made AoE and having an anti-heal. But if it is an advantage, it’s a slim one.

In my mind, the Archmage should focus on being pro/anti ranged/healer careers. While the Shaman should focus on being pro/anti tank/MDPS careers. Why? It fits their concepts. The Shaman is fueled, literally, by the energy of the Waaagh (War). While the Archmage is known for being one of the best magical users around. This seemed to be the way Mythic was going at first, giving the Shaman spells like ‘Ere we go!, Gork’s Barbs‘, and Gork Sez Stop. These spells seem ideal for buffing or hindering tanks and MDPS. Even their Mork mastery spells seem to encourage being used on people who are in the thick of things like tanks and mdps. Shrug it off is best if the target is taking frequent damage, and Do Sumfin Useful is the same.

Yet, on the counter point of being anti-RDPS/Healer he still wins. Sure you can debuff Intelligence and Ballistic Skill (Rainlord used to only debuff those stats, strength was added in later). But he can steal it, making the enemy’s potential his own (sound like a familiar career description to anyone?). Yer Not So Bad quite simply blows Drain Magic out of the water. I mean, does anyone really think doing a little bit of damage is worth making the enemy lose less AP and not getting that AP for yourself?

But, at the same time, I don’t feel jealous of the Shaman. I just feel he’s had more attention, more thought, more of a “niche”. Relatively speaking, the Archmage is extremely new. For the longest time, we all thought that the AM would use “Drain Magic” as a career defining mechanic. It was a bit of a shock when we found he had essentially become a copy/paste of the Shaman with a Elf’d up description of Waaagh. I am certain this guide will need a LOT of updating in the patches to come as Mythic gets the content more fine tuned and careers start getting more attention.

The Runepriest/Zealot
These careers are called the “Flex Healers” for a reason. In aspect of healing they want to persue they can excel in. One the one hand, they will tell you that it’s a disadvantage that their heals are spread out, unlike ours. I would tell you differently though. While this is, in fact, a disadvantage of some sort. It also means that no matter what they specialize in they will have potent heals AND damage. Meanwhile, if you focus in heals your damage falls behind, if you focus in damage your heals fall behind. If you focus in debuffs…well, you get where this is going.

So, the question is, is being able to focus in a single sort of spellcasting worth the others falling behind? I mean, if you focus in healing role and spec so, then your mechanic will boost your damage..right? Yes, this is true. You can instantly cast your weak DDs or add +25% to your weaker instant spells. Does this occasional bonus outweigh the constant 30-50% bonus the Flex Healers receive to both damage and healing spells in the path of their choice? I tend to think not.

In addition to this, you also receive less healing options baseline. Every career gets the same basic heals. A Heal + HoT, a HoT, A Big Heal, and a Group Heal (Melee Healers receive special versions). And..that’s all you get…the basics. Meanwhile, flex healers get an instant cast small heal, a shield that doesn’t have a group requirement AND heals the target when it fades, and a HoT that bounces to 6 targets.

So, currently, less options overall and less versatility. This is an issue that effects both the AM and Shaman.

The Warrior Priest/Disciple of Khaine
It is quite difficult to compare the Archmage to these careers simply because they play so differently. The ability to use dual targeting, stay in melee range, watch health bars, ect. is so important and valued on these careers that I find it nigh impossible to compare them to any other career in terms of playstyle. But I’ll try.

The Melee Healers are extremely potent if played correctly, I might go so far to say that a well played Melee Healer will outdo you. But it’s difficult to say. Their mechanic is such a limitation that the requirement to be in melee or channel their AP->Mechanic skill is necessary. An Archmage can, if he chooses, just stand back and focus on healing. And he’ll excel. No, he doesn’t have as many options as other healers, but he has the tools to do what he needs to do. Meanwhile, if his group is getting hit hard a Melee Healer might find himself out of AP and either HAS to go melee or stand there and convert his AP. His group healing is excellent, especially if he goes into his healing path, and his heals are much quicker. Their “big heal” was long since converted into a channeled melee attack that heals your defensive target, which has some severe limitations since, if you’re up against a tank, it’ll heal little. And the lack of “Sticky Targeting” makes keeping an offensive and defensive target difficult at best.

This is one situation where I’d have to say the AM comes out ahead simply by virtue of the Melee Healers not currently being able to truly fulfill the healing role in combat as a true Healer Archetype currently. But, when it comes to “mixing it up” the Melee Healers do pull ahead.

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”.

Archmage Spells, Tactics, and Morales

Archmages do, indeed, use more than one Lore of Magic. Though this has no actual in-game effect, the Archmage’s mechanic being based on the type of build-up a spell creates based on whether it is an offensive or support spell, but it is nice to know that the Archmage really does have quite a breadth of knowledge. Among the Archmage’s spells, the Lores I was able to recognize were mainly of Life, Light, and, of course, High Magic though there is even one spell from the Lore of Metal.

Unless otherwise noted, all damaging spells are Spirit based. I chose to leave out the “numbers” since these are quite varied based on your spent Mastery Points, levels, and stage of beta we are in.

A Quick Intro to How Ability Levels Work
I’ll try to keep this short, but most don’t understand this about the game so it’s needed. The level of a spell is not the level of the character casting the spell. Rather, spells level in a different way. Up until level 10, they gain a level each time you do. After that, they only go up in level every even level thereafter. This means that at Rank 40 the max level of any skill linked to a Mastery Line will be level 25. The remaining 15 levels come from putting points into the Path linked to that ability. Most abilities with an effect that grows as you level are linked to a Path, Lambent Aura, and it’s reflections on other healers, is an exception as it is always at full level.

Level 1
Healing Energy
-With a quick spin of your staff healing energy surges into your ally, immediately healing them and healing them for over twice as much over 9 seconds.
**This is a basic Heal + HoT, the HoT portion is about 2.6x the value of the Heal. This is a much more viable spell now that they, recently, reduced it’s casting time and upped the HoT portion’s value.

Radiant Lance
-A prismatic beam of light lances from the tip of your staff dealing a moderate amount of damage to the target.
**Currently you don’t have much use for this spell once you get all your DoTs and Channel DD, the same tends to go for the Shaman version… it just usually isn’t worth casting even without your mechanic..nevermind with it. Most AMs eventually drop this off their bar.

Level 2
Law of Conductivity-Your hand crackles with electricity as energy courses through your target, dealing a high amount of damage to them over 15 seconds.
[FONT=&quot]**Your only DoT without a secondary effect. It is also the weakest DoT you have.[/FONT]

Level 3
Lambent Aura
-You raise your staff above your head and it shimmers with prismatic light, a soothing aura surrounds your target, healing a high amount of damage over 15 seconds.
**Does not benefit from Mastery. All healer’s get a basic HoT and it is always considered at full level.

Level 4
Radiant Gaze
-Twin beams of radiant light shoot from your eyes, burning the enemy and making it difficult to see. Deals a high amount of damage over 9 seconds, also reduces all damage the enemy does by 5% and reduces their chance to critical hit by 5%.
**Great spell I mean, come on..it’s eye lasers! Probably your highest ticking DoT as it does the same amount of dmg as other DoTs but over 9 seconds. The debuff component isn’t very noticeable, but it’s a great spell when combined with Golden Aura.

Level 5
Searing Touch
-A searing beam of pure white flame leaps from your outstretched hand, connecting with your target and searing them over 6 seconds. (hits 4x for a moderate amount).
**Mythic recently changed all channeled DDs to deal their damage over 6 seconds. It just feels like you’re wasting time. It may look efficient in it’s damage, until you consider that you aren’t regenerating any AP while you channel it. Which effectively increased the total AP cost of this ability by 75. It used to hit 4x in 3 seconds.

Level 6
Transfer Force
-You slowly transfer the life force of an enemy into an ally. Dealing a low amount of damage to the enemy over 24 seconds, healing your defensive target for the amount of damage dealt each “tick”.
**One of the few unique sort of spells the AM/Shaman receive. But it’s pretty weak currently.

Level 7
Prismatic Shield
-A prismatic shell surrounds each member of your party briefly before imbueing itself into them, raising all of their resistances.
**It’s one of your few buffs.

Dissipating Hatred
-You drain the hatred out of an enemy, making them find it more difficult to bring forth the urge to harm you. They deal 50% less damage to you for 15 seconds. If you actively harm them in any way for the duration the detaunt immediately ends.
**Great ability, learn to use it and it will save your tail. One important thing to note is that DoTs already on the target will not cause this to be removed. I have frequently had to do 1on1 fights where I loaded the target up with DoTs, used this, then spam healed myself and repeated the process until I won.

Level 8
Boon of Hysh
-You twirl your staff above your head as lights and colors swirl about your form, finally you slam your staff to the ground directing the healing forces to an ally, healing them for a very high amount.
**This spell used to be Fragile, meaning it was always set back by 2 seconds anytime you took damage. Though it was not mentioned in patch notes (nor were many of the lower heal changes such as 1sec Heal + HoT, instance cast Flash Heals for the Runepriest/Zealot, boosting of the normal HoT, and making the group heal fragile). I will update this when I am more sure of the intended state.

Divine Favor
T1 Archetype Morale
**Probably your best option for a T1 Morale, it heals for quite a bit and instantly and you will usually have it available.

Level 9
Drain Magic
-You reach out your hand and draw both the life and potential out of your enemy.
**This spell is a bit of a sore spot for me, in the TT Drain Magic is a very unique ability of Archmages (and another race, but they aren’t playable). It’s essential effect is to make a target caster nigh useless, making his magic less potent and more difficult to cast. Seeing it made into a crappily done “Mana Burn” type skill (the dmg and AP loss aren’t even linked, nor do you gain the AP they lose) bugs me. Especially when Mythic insists on trying to balance it as a DD. Meanwhile, the Shaman gets a skill that *steals* 180 AP from a victim over 9 seconds. Rant over, moving on…

Level 10
Gift of Life
-You aim your staff at a fallen ally, funneling life energies into them. They stand back up where they fell with 20% of their life total.
**Note that this spell can be swiftened, so you can instant rez potentially. As a point of reference, Runepriests/Zealots get a 3 sec Rez with a 6 sec CD, resulting in the same amount of rezzes in the same time frame, but giving the AM/Shaman the potential to rez quicker in exchange for a slower base cast time.

Level 11
Centuries of Training
Racial Tactic
**Not a bad skill, especially when used with AoEs. The damage type is unknown.

Level 12
Walk Between Worlds
-The Archmage phases himself out of time and space with those near him. Every nearby enemy is detaunted, dealing 50% less damage to the Archmage for the duration, and the Archmage is uninterruptable. Lasts 5 seconds. Detaunt effect fades automatically if you attack a detaunted enemy.
**This spell is nice, but could use an update. I wanted to mention this on the thread on WHA but could not..you see, 5 sec duration sounds nice. Until you realize that 1.5 seconds of that will be taken up by the GCD.

Rampaging Siphon
T2 Archetype Morale
**The healing is, unfortunately, not based on the total damage dealt but rather 1 “hit”.

Level 13
Divine Fury
Archetype Tactic
**An excellent tactic to use while soloing or when there is plenty of healing about..or you just feel like dishing out some pain.

Level 14
Shield of Saphery
-The air around the target swirls, forming a barely perceptible shield against attacks. Absorbing a high amount of damage over 9 seconds.
**First off, unlike Runepriests and Zealots, this shield only works on groupmates. Secondly, it’s no more powerful despite this restriction. In fact, it’s weaker since the RP/Zealot versions also do a heal once they fade. Still, not a bad emergency skill for yourself or an ally, just sometimes difficult to use if you’re in a scenario or warband and aren’t exactly sure if someone is in your party.

Level 15
Empowered Lores
Career Tactic
**Not a bad tactic at all, not much to say. Definitely better used if you know you’ll be doing both damage and healing frequently.

Level 16
Cleansing Light
-A brief purifying light sweeps over your target.
**These spells currently aren’t used very often. The buff/debuff display has been getting some updates recently but it still isn’t really easy to read or quickly recognize, plus it’s difficult to predict what can be removed.

Steal Life
T1 Archetype Morale
**Sometimes a better option while soloing as it deals damage and heals you.

Level 17
Bend the Winds
Racial Tactic
**Perhaps useful if you’re PvEing in an area where you know you’ll need the resistances. I personally prefer they’d replace the Racial Resistance Tactics and just give each race a natural boost.

Level 18
Rain Lord
-With a wave of his staff the Archmage forms a magical rainstorm above all enemies in the target’s area. This rainstorm saps both strength and magic, while obscuring sight.
**Cool effect and all, but really it’s not a devastating or even very noticeable debuff except for maybe in PvE where you can keep it running on a boss constantly to really add up the effect.

Level 19
Discipline
Archetype Tactic
**This tactic is new, and I haven’t used it much. But it definitely looks worth using.

Level 20
Blessing of Isha
-Twirling your staff above your head, you bring it down as purifying and healing lights radiate out around you, healing all party members within a long range for a moderate amount.
*The range is not listed, it seems at least 150 though if not longer.
**Apparently this spell is now fragile, there has been no mention in the patch notes about any of the recent heal changes. Luckily for you, you’re an Archmage and can cast this spell instantly. Also, I’m going to be mean here and tell you that up until quite recently, we had a tactic in our healing line that made this a 2 sec cast. It was nice while it lasted, especially since that -1 second was taken off *after* High Magic was considered. Meaning, your group heal cast instantly with only ~3 Force.

Focused Mind
T2 Archetype Morale
**Definitely a viable second slot morale. It’s pretty much 10 seconds of, “I do what I want”. You can spam heal, run, ect. and you aren’t going to be interrupted or stopped short of death and, better yet, you’re casting twice as fast.

Level 21
Isha’s Encouragement
Career Tactic
**Very nice tactic. There’s nothing quite so nice as being able to cast 2 instant group heals or big heals in a row..sometimes even more.

Level 23
Discerning Offense
Racial Tactic
**I honestly have never used this on any of my High Elf characters. It was recently buffed from 5% to 10% with the big Tactics patch, but I still haven’t found it more useful than my other tactics no matter what my career choice.

Level 24
Divine Protection
T3 Archetype Morale
**I have really never much used this since it’s limited to melee only. Really, not bad, but if I have melee on me I’d rather use Arcane Suppression to get them off me.

Level 25
Wind Blast
-You slam your staff into the ground conjuring a powerful gust of wind to send foes flying. The magical winds continue to assail your enemies for a brief time.
**Very difficult to aim and the area in front of you is quite small. Also, if you aren’t targeting someone in front of you, the autofacing utility will face you towards that person and make you miss those you wanted to hit.

Subtlety
Archetype Tactic
**I don’t think I’ve ever really had an issue with healing aggro. Frequent use of Dissipating Hatred works perfectly well, without wasting a tactic slot.

Level 27
Master of Tranquility
Career Tactic
**Not bad, especially combined with other tactics that give bonuses when you crit like Empowered Lores.

Level 28
Isha’s Ward
T1 Career Morale
**Absolute trash, 50% auto attack speed isn’t worth not having your emergency heal or even Life Tap Over Time morales.

Level 29
Restorative Burst
Archetype Tactic
**This was nerfed slightly with the recent tactics patch, it now gives you the AP over 3 seconds. Also, notice it says “direct heals” meaning, just keeping HoTs ticking won’t do the trick. Nor will group heals.

Level 30
Storm of Cronos
-Lightning leaps from the tip of your staff, striking at enemies causing them to become more sucseptible to spiritual magic.
**Short range, terrible damage, and 10 second duration(you’ll find that most debuffs are a mere 10 seconds, yea i know..it blows). Also suffers from potentially missing because of auto-face if you don’t select a good target.

Level 31
Hurried Restoration
Career Tactic
**Great tactic, potentially overpowered in PvE end game content. I haven’t checked if the spell still consumes Force to “Swiften” while this tactic is equipped, but it really shouldn’t.

Level 32
Blinding Light
T2 Career Morale
**Another situation where a potentially cool debuff is given way too short of a duration. I dont think I’ve ever used it.

Level 33
Master of Force
Career Tactic
**Same as Master of Tranquility, not bad at all, especially combined with Empowered Lores. Would I use 3 of my 4 Tactic slots on the combo? Unlikely, though I could see some real potential with Master of Force, Master of Tranquility, Empowered Lores, and Isha’s Encouragement.

Level 35
Law of Gold
-The Archmage briefly locks away the magical potential of the target, dealing a low amount of damage and making them unable to cast any spells for 5 seconds.
**Silence is golden, it’s a good spell. The damage is low enough to be rather negligible, but a silence helps. Sadly, this is probably your best anti-caster ability. You’d think the AM would be the best anti-caster around, but no such luck. This is essentially the same Silence that most casters recieve.

Transfer Magic
Career Tactic
**Possibly implemented with the recent Tactics patch in response to my vehement feedback about the spell itself. But I am very against “band-aid” tactics.

Level 36
Arcane Suppression
T3 Career Morale
**An extra knockback and silence is great for survival, this is regularly slotted.

Level 37
Run Between Worlds
Career Tactic
**Sorta an uninspired name. But if WBW was boosted in duration or made not to trigger the GCD it could become viable.

Level 39
Desperation
Archetype Tactic
**Not a bad tactic, but I dont think I have the room for it really. I haven’t tested it very thoroughly to see if it is proactive on already running HoTs or when the spell lands, ect.

Level 40
Dissipating Energies
-The Archmage surrounds the target groupmate or himself with crackling energies that lash out and harm any enemies nearby for a short period.
**Kinda underwhelming for your final ability. It has quite a short duration combined with a long CD and requires a groupmate that is within 10ft of enemies for the duration. And all high magic does is get rid of the annoying 2 sec cast time. Hopefully this gets an update to be more interesting.

Alter Fate
T4 Archetype Morale
**Not as good as you may think since it only effects dead groupmates within such a short radius. And, if they are dead, you’re usually long dead as well. It takes too long to get full morale for this to be of any real use.

Mastery Paths
One important thing to note is that the value I give for the ability/tactic/morale is the *requirement* to buy it. You must put that many points into the path and then spend another point to buy it. I chose to represent it this way since you can, technically, have 15 points in a line then go back down and buy an ability that only required 3 points.

My general impression of the Mastery Paths is that they are too strict. As a caster who specializes in “mixing it up” I’d expect all of the lines to have things for both parts of your Mechanic while having a “focus” on the aspect that line embodies. The Path of Isha is a good example of what I mean. It’s meant to be a healing line, yet it has a Life Transfer DD in it. If this spell actually dealt decent damage (right now it’s pitiful), you would be able to heal and then use your built up Tranquility to Transfer life through your base spell Transfer Force, and the Mastery Spell Balance Essence. None of the other lines encourage this sort of gameplay, I’ll go into more detail as a preface for each line.

Path of Isha
This is your healing line. It focuses near purely on healing, with the only exception being Balance Essence. Currently, this spell, despite being useless, is the closest I’ve seen to an attempt to “mix it up” within our mastery lines. Ideally, you could be an Isha Archmage and focus purely on healing allies, using your built up Tranquility to cast an empowered Transfer Force or Balance Essence. Unfortunately, this is not the case and most of the abilities in this line actually encourage you to spam heal to get the most of them.

Level of Mastery: 3
Balanced Mending
Path of Isha Tactic
**Currently not working, better than the old version of this tactic that gave a flat +5% to healing done and -10% to healing taken. Right now this tactic feels like, at most, a band-aid for Healing Energy to make it somewhat more potent.

Level of Mastery: 5
Balance Essence
-With a wave of his hand, the Archmage draws the life energies out of an enemy and uses them to rejuvenate an ally.
**Ideally, this spell should replace radiant lance on your bar. Ideally, it should do more than 150 damage at rank 40 with full points in the Path of Isha. Unfortuantely, this is not the case. Note that this spell does 75% of the damage of the Shaman version.

Level of Mastery: 7
Bolstering Boon
Path of Isha Tactic
**While “in combat” you gain 10 morale per second. This results in 25 seconds worth of morale given each time you use your big slow heal on someone. As a point of reference, it takes ~15 castings to get someone to full morale. So it’s not ideal for spamming for that purpose, but it’s a nice boost. In two castings you more than have enough morale for a T1 ability, and 3 castings gives you enough for a T2..after that it takes much longer to build up.

Level of Mastery: 9
Funnel Essence
-Raising your arms in the air, you immediately begin channeling healing into an ally.
**The best ability in the Path of Isha currently, it heals your target for more than your 3 sec big heal(Boon of Hysh) does in the same amount of time. And it starts the healing right away rather than having to wait until the end of the casting. Note that it gains healing with High Magic, whereas the big heal casts faster. So both still retain their uses. As a side note, this ability used to be a channeled Life Transfer spell.

Level of Mastery: 11
Wild Healing
Path of Isha Tactic
**A pretty good tactic, but I think it focuses too much on spam healing, which isn’t what the AM is about.

Level of Mastery: 13
Magical Infusion
-You infuse an ally with greater healing potential, causing his wounds to be easier to heal by anyone.
**I really dislike this skill. 3 seconds to give them a +25% bonus for only 20 seconds. This means, in order to be effective, you have to be in a sitaution where you know someone is going to need as much healing within a short amount of time, and yet have the 3 seconds to spare to cast this on them.

Level of Mastery: 15
Winds’ Protection
Path of Isha T4 Morale
**Not a bad skill at all. For 15 seconds not only are you providing a very nice absorbtion shield, but also healing them in the process.

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 Energy Path 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.

Image Source of Archmage header: WAR Site

Source: WAR Forums

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