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Stormcryer's Tanking Tri-Elementalist - The Archmage Revealed
It has been asked enough, both in forums (of the group in general), online and via email (of me personally) to produce my build guide for the Archmage.
Before we start I welcome suggestion that could lead to a better build, but please no flames like "Archmage sucks, or Archmage isn't viable".
I have proven its viablity with hours of in-game play (Questing, MFing andrushing) and although it doesn't kill as fast as a single elemental cookie cutter, it is, in my opinion, a more well rounded, and enjoyable build for PVM against single/dual immunes and act bosses.
THIS IS NOT A PVP Build.
I will admit up front to you all, that my build may be even more viable if skills are switched to FO/CL/Meteor as FO may be better than Blizzard in a build that CANNOT leverage synergies.
Also in order to create this build, you will have to devote some time just leveling, during your questing, especially earlier on, as filing prerequisite skills reduces your killing capability until about level 40.
I selected Blizz/CL/meteor as the primary attacks and at lvl 83 she seems to be working quite well.
The only drawbacks to the Archmage is the dependancy on the following;
1) Good (+ Skills and res) equipment
2) Max block, and a very good shield (Mosers/upgraded Viscer)
3) A defiance merc raised from Act 2 Normal and equiped and maintained through out the game.
Before we get to the build, you will need to set up your keyboard for fast skill switching. This is very important as you will want to be able to stand firm against dual immunes, but still be able stack other elemental attacks at the same time. Playing this build requires you to adapt your playing style a bit. No more single mouse only attacking/ and teleporting arround immunes.
Being right handed I set the following on the left hand side of the keyboard and tied these to my right mouse button.
R = Shiver Armor
E = Thunder Storm
W =Telekenisis
Q = Chain Lightning
G = Weapong Switch
F = Meteor
D = Blizzard
S = Static Field
A = Teleport
Caps Lock = Show Items
Shift = Stand Still
Space = Map toggle
Z,X,C,V I have assigned to non timered skills for fill in attack but use them rarely.
The typical boss kill goes like this.
D,D,S,S,S,D,D,F,F,F,F
At the same time in between right clicks I alternate with left clicks with is set to CL
Dual Imunes are obvious...use the element that they are not immune to. Special note for FI/CIs Set right mouse to Static, hit continuosly alternate with CL on Left mouse and use merc to deleiver physical damage.
Now on to the build.
DISCLAIMER....This build is based on LADDER PLAY, and finding/trading for a particlar set up of items that fill + skills. (some substitutions could be made, but so far it has been tested with the items listed in the Items section.
Can be of either of the following, depending on play style.
CL/FO/Meteor
or
CL/Blizz/Meteor
I built the following;
CL/Blizz/Meteor
The Stats
---------------
Stats
Str 103
Dex 203 (more or less depending on Shield selection)
Vitality 90
Energy 118 (everything else goes in here after Max block achieved.)
The Skills
----------------
Put 0 points in the following
Hydra, Enchant, Chilling armor, Frozen Orb, Energy Shield
27 Points in Pre-req for Blizz, CL, and Meteor, including 1 in each mastery
3 Thunder Storm
20 Chain Lightning
7 Lightning Mastery
20 Meteor
7 Fire Mastery
20 Blizzard
7 Cold Mastery
Items
Full Tals Set (Stacked + Skills)
-- Um in Armor and pTopazed in Mask
Magefists
Upgraded Vicser Shield (pDiamond) w 203 dex at lvl 90 Max Block.
2 x Soj
Wartravelers
2nd Slot
Isted Occy (can be dual isted ali as well)
Rhymed trolls Nest
Misc Charms carried at all times
6 + skill charms (3 each)
1 Annihilus (Beg borrow, trade, Kill DC but get one)
1 Gheeds
4 + 20 Life (preferabley with a good second mod like MF or mana)
4 7% SMFC with decent 2nd mod.
Secondary gear (left in stash for NM MF runs only (Andy, Countess, Meph, Big D, and Baal in particule)
Perfect Chance Guards
2 x Perfect Nagels
Goldwrap (could be replaced with Arachnid if + skills still needed...but I haven't exprienced this need so far.)
The Merc
Act 2 Normal Defiance
Always start your merc with your build as you get more out of him.
His equip.
Crown of Theives (eth)
Leviathan (Needs to be swapped with a templar)
Reapers Toll (needs be swapped with a tomb if 3 socket suggest Mal,Ohm, Ber -- minimum Mal for 1 socket)
With this set up you get a whopping +13 to all skills, 75 to Lightning/Fire/Cold res. 65 to poison res. Not to mention increases in str/dex/man life. Merc and Shiver armor take your def to 7600+ and with PMH your killing time is greatly reduced.
Some will argue the choice of the Tal Set vs building from Elite Uniques but the stacking of added bounuses See Below.
These are the Stacked attributes for the Set Only. There also some stacking from the 2 Soj, wartravs, and Magefists but I don't think that many would argue about the inclusion of these items.
50% Faster Cast Rate (taken ove teh 65% break point my magefist)
+20 To Dexterity
+179 To Mana
+317 To Life
Replenish Life +10
+10 To Energy
Requirements -80%
All Resistances +65
Cold Resist +40%
Lightning Resist +40%
Lightning Resist +33%
Fire Resist +40%
+655 Defense
+50 Defense vs. Missile
25% Faster Hit Recovery
Magic Damage Reduced By 15
37% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1-2 To Lightning Mastery
+1-2 To Fire Mastery
+1-2 To Cold Mastery
+6 To Sorceress Skill Levels
Adds 3-32 Lightning Damage
-15% To Enemy Fire Resistance (3 Items)
-15% To Enemy Lightning Resistance (4 Items)
+15% To Cold Skills Damage (Complete Set)
168% Better Chance Of Magic Items (varies)
Cheers!
I have been using this build for MF running, questing, and rushing with very good sucess. If you have suggestions that would improve teh build pleae let me know.
I'd like to hear more about how you lvled and how you madeit throughall the difficulties.
From 1.09 i have a Tri-Elementalist left who's build like this, and she can stand her gorund in 1.10 Hell and do MF-Runs etc.:
I'm not anti old-school (me like FO too), but when I fisrt started experimenting with the build I used a few my "retired" 1.09 sorcs (all low to mid 90s) that had several different primary attacks. One was and FO/Nova/Hydra, the other was a FO/Nova/Meteor, and one was a Blizzard/Nova/Meteor. (Been tinkering with the Archmage build for a long time now.)
FO has advantages, and can be argued that in a build that does not leverage synergies, may even, on a per shard basis deal out slightly more damage. (The book stats do not reflect this as they deal mostly with the primary orb and not secondary off shoots from it.)
However there are limitations with a targeted elemental attack attack that is launched from ground level (FO) when compared to an area elemental attack that is dropped from the sky (Bliz).
FO limitations are in range and obsticle avoidance. Take the Lost city fo example. There are several "screen decorations" crumbling walls for one, in which FO cannot shoot through. Blizzard can shoot over as log as you have even the most modeset line of sight. Narrow doorways in tunnels, (Lost City, Maggot Lair, Flayer Dungeon, most areas of Act V) limit the effectiveness of FO but not Blizzard.
And finally there's the range issue. Try to use FO, for example, with the moat method of running meph and you'll see that Blizzard has a better ranged attack and ranged attacking while using your merc for close in physical damage/meat shielding is one of the playing style modifications that and Archmage runner will have to adopt.
This was not apparent in 1.09, but with the increase of monster resilience (more damage needed to kill, imunities, etc) sorc "tank" builds are not really "tanks" as much as they are "armored cars", better defenses than a non block build, but certainly not as strong as a pure tank sorc from 1.09.
I know -- I got one. Def is through the roof, blocking with SS also, DR as maxed as you can get with the equipment available. She stood like a pally in cow runs (swarmed to the point where you couldn't see the avatar) dropping meteors until they all died, and took virtually no damage, and no life loss.) She can't do the same in 1.09
If every level was like the Tamoe Highlands (wide open spaces) then FO strategical limitations would be, for the most part, nullified(with the exception of range) and could then make FO superior to Blizzard for this build.
To be totally fair, once I'm done playing arround with my current build, I'll make a 1.10 FO/CL/Meteor archmage and see how she plays.
CI LI = Park monster using teleport leet skillz and spam fireball (or Meteor)at it (Works best with a strong merc.. lol)
CI FI = Static till half life (referring to hell here) then park monster again and finish off with lightning
FI LI = Orb... duh =D
Assuming +10 to all skills, and +2 to each element (6 grand charms, 2 each), damage :
Frozen Orb slvl 32
Cold Damage: 445-466
Lightning slvl 32
Lightning Damage: 4-2649
Meteor slvl 22
Fire Damage: 4075-4321
Average Fire Damage: 713-771 per second
First off let me say that I was constantly tweaking the weapons I carried. I generally carried what ever good orb I could find/buy with a shield (blocking was started right from the get go) in weapon one, and kept the better weapon for a sorc (in normal) some + individual skills staff in weapon two. I would then to the weapon switch for really tough situations. So this is outside of the box????--Hardly.
I also maintained a stock of these staffs, as I found them, and would, if necessary retreat from a fight to switch off to these should the one I was carrying not give me the hit power that I needed at the time.
Also, once Blood Raven went down you get your first merc. She is probably the most useless one you can have for this build, but after I got her, I would use her as a distraction. Run in tight to crowds, which she would follow, run like heck back to a decent range, while the nasties were hammering on her, and then let go with the ranged attack. (Ice Bolt followed by fire bolt.) Had to revive her a bit, but I didn't get killed and gold can always be obtained.
Here's how I built her.
Skills
-------
As you level up while questing in act 1, you concentrate on filling in all the pre-reqs. This gives you some variety of attacks, but not one or two "really strong" attacks. Static becomes a necessity to take out the quest bosses, and Andy. One finer point to remember, especially in the early stages of the game; this is a questing build.... so quest fully. After I completed act one and act two, you could walk through the screens and all you would see would be corpses. Every killable creature was eliminated. Every chest opened (its content used or taken back to town and sold potions aside). Not only did I build up my cash reserve this way, but also found better equipment that went to help increase blocking, def, and even some decent (for the level) + skills.
Remember that CL is available from lv 18, where Blizz and Meteor are lvl 24, so you can see where, as far as the primary skills are concerned the build starts off as a CL build with CL being the primary attack and using a variety of the pre-reqs as a secondary attack. (Ice Bolt, Fire Bolt, etc). Once you hit lvl 24, the other primary skill have to be brought up to the same level as your current CL, and then they're balanced from that point on.
Everyone talks about how Blizzard, the company, introduced synergies to compensate for the increase in monster strength. The idea was that you didn't have to save up skill points in the early stages of the game as you could place the points into synergy skills for the target primary skill and keep your build viable. Normal monsters have not been beefed up greatly. This means that the whole idea of beefing up your sorc in Normal by applying points into synergy skills for your primary skill is actually wrong. All you end up doing is placing points into inferior skills early on, and denying those needed points at level 24, and lvl 30 (masteries). So to sum this up, don't use synergies for the Archmage build. Adapt your play in Normal mode to allow you to "set" your base build up and then stock the heck out of them from lvl 24 on. Once they're maxed worth on Masteries.
Note about warmth. Many sorc items found have a + to this skill. I found many staff and orbs that had multiple + to individual skills, and leveraged these as much as possible.
It takes 27 points to set the pre-req base. Which means that by lvl 24, you should have be through Act 4 Normal, have base established, and are starting into maxing your primary skills.
After lvl 24, I basically tried to keep the skill evenly distributed, but I found that it Blizz, and Meteor developed faster as the need for a more powerful punch was realized. Also by this time my merc was strong enough to do most of the hard tanking and that allowed me to distribute more into the timed skills. All three skills were evened out (Maxed) by lvl82.
Stat Points
I early allocation of stat points required a little research on the items I was going to use; both intermittent, and final. As I did not need to fill in strength until I was to use the Tal Set, and Trolls Nest (lvl 65 - 70), the item that required the most strength (107), I concentrated on Energy, Vit, Dex then Strength. The first two sets of 5 went directly into Energy to get the mana built up a bit. The next set went into Strength for equipment, the next set into Vit; the next set went into Dex.
Being an experienced player, I knew that the first five levels are not difficult to obtain, nor are you really pressured enough to warrant distributing points over all stats.
After this, I allocated based on the next set item I wanted to use, the target for blocking, and the manpower I would need. So it went kind of like this.
Strength 1
Dexterity 2
Vitality 1
Energy 1
Once vit was at lvl 90, its point went into strength.
Once strength was at 107, its points went into either Dex or energy depending on where max block was. This was just a guideline though.
If I found a particular item that needed more strength, for example), I would distribute toward it and make up for the change in the next set. (TIP - I kept a print out of the build including item requirements as it progressed so I could manage the build better.)
Leveling was done as per a level up guide found in the Diablii.net Strategy compendium. It details which act, in which mode, based on char level that you should use to level and get 99% of the exp points possible from each kill.
After Act 3 NM was completed, I found that I was able to run Norm and NM MF runs. (NM being the Act 1, and 2 areas only.) These areas also allowed me to level up a bit while trying to find some decent items.)
After completing NM, I hung around in Act 4 and 5 leveling for a few levels, and also MF ran NM meph, and Andy, Countess.
By the time I hit hell I was lvl 68 or so. I have dug deep into some of my non-ladder mules and chars, to trade for ladder items. (Won't go into this. The cost was high, and I'm still in denial, but I did finally get the base set of items I needed)
Once outfitted with the Tal Set, and my viscer, I started to take on Hell. Stopping at the end of each act to do MF runs, and level at least one extra level per Act.
On MF runs
-------------
You will never find the type of unique items that you need in Normal. But there are plenty of yellow, and blue items. I found a 2-socketed yellow chain mail, which at lvl 18 I sank 2 ptopazes into. This with a few yellow and blue rings, gloves, belt, gave me 100% mf by lvl 18. This equipment was not used during questing, but rather on specific low level MF runs through Normal and NM.
Theses runs yielded a vipermaji, soj, magefist, that ended up being a major key to overall success of the build.
MFing was also done for a wile after the completion of each act, and each mode. I had stopped the questing to do NM and Hell MF runs (pits meph, andy, countess) to see if she could handle basic MFing. This was to done to ensure that even of she couldn't finish the solo run in Hell, she would still be a useful char, Otherwise...delete. She worked out well...no delete.
That’s basically how she was built.
I am sure there were tones of places that I could have done better, but I was also enjoying this as it was my first ladder build, and really the first time I've on-line quested since the 1.10 patch. Building was slow compared to the cookie cutters, but I was doing this for enjoyment and to prove that it could be done, so I was in no real rush to finish. The building to me is as enjoyable as the end product.
Fireball may be a bit of a waste as maxing Meteor gets more powerful punch(than synergy bonus), and FB is only really useful for lower levels. This can be worked around by adapting playing style.
Good points though. And yes the merc is a key element to the build. Junk merc = less tanking ability = sorc death. death very bad...LOL
Just for the sake of optimizing the damage of your build Stormcryer, since i am tempted to try it out.
You would be better of doing the skill distribution this way:
Then you will get optimum damage! Calculation is based on +12 skills, which should fit on your build if added all the +skills right or was that +9 skillercharms (3 each) ? You wrote 6 which would make 2 each alas +12 skills and not +13
Mind you this is just the perfectionist mind speaking!
with +12(fire +13) skills:
--------------------------------
7 Fireball
20 Meteor
1 Fire Mastery (gives highest possible damage Meteor that way)
Meteor damage
5752.1-6002.8 opposed to
5324.1-5556.1
+450 dam is not bad i think
--------------------------------
Lightning
20 Chain Lightning
Lightning Mastery
Chain Lighting dam:
3.9-1888.3 opposed to
3.9-1871.2
ok this is not a big winner, but still a wee bit more. again just the perfectionist mind speaking :teeth:
--------------------------------
20 Frozen Orb
7 CM
Nothing much to change here
Though personally i would move the +6 points from CM to LM or FM to give either of those some extra damage. Since you have 2 backup spells CM is nice but more than +1 would be overkill. You are not single or dual tree.
So i gather that CM can be neglected a bit since you have +12 skills already which is close to the -100% res of lvl18 CM.
So you might gain +450 damage on Meteor with a different skill distribution!
I did a review of the build, and forgot to mention that the first build was based on taking the char to lvl 93 (skill points 104). If you invest the time to go to full 99, then there are 110 points.
Your notes help quite abit
Revamped Cold tree
7 Glacial Spike
20 Blizz
4 CM
5 in Pre reqs
0 in Chilling Armor and FO
= Blizz Damage 1906 - 1996
-100 % Monster Cold resist
Revamped Fire tree
9 Fire Ball
20 Meteor
1 in prereqs
0 in Hydra
= Meteor Damage 6391-6669
Revamped Lightning Tree
20 CL
9 in LM
3 TS for early game assistance while soloing
1 in pre-reqs
0 in Eshield
= CL Damage 4 -2143
Here's the calc that I used but maybe I screwed it up at the beginning. I found this one a little more intuative than the one you posted.
Thanks for the FB. There's not too many of us Archmage builders out there so hearing from someone who actuallt builds them vs the other that just cry "it won't work" is very helpful to finalizing the build.
I guess there is always a way. A Tri-Elementalist is certainly no cooki-cutter, but it can survive Hell with the right gear. +skills mainly and maybe also some nice facets to add more to the effectiveness of Tal's Orb.
Maybe also using Death Fathom and other gear that adds -xx% res and +xx% dam will help.
I think i will rebuild my
Meteor/CB/FO sorc maybe with your suggestion of CL.
Maximising effectiveness of your spells to the highest possible damage is just aswellimportant in that build. You could get more +skills with a different setup but you would lack, life, res and the -/+ extras then.
my 1.09 trielementalist uses shako, occy and the lot with rather low res and ES still from way back, but i used to lvl her in 1.10 without much problem.
I rebuild will do fine Thx to you too for posting yoyur thoughts!
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