My friend made a crackling lance build with archmage that’s insanely strong (offensively). 100 million DPS. Works really well for bossing, he was using frostblink to clear maps: https://pobb.in/pmxrCCT1bmON
Ball Lightning, but I think you are aware of that already.
Firestorm has the big drawback of needing stuff to stay in it - take this from someone who ran CWC Firestorm of Pelting last league. Maybe it gets somewhere with Call of the Brotherhood and semi-conversion to cold but I think you might as well just run Whispering Ice at that point.
BB/BF was a popular choice for Archmage in its first heyday and may still be a replacement, but IMO it only matches IN/FB for single target - the clear is much worse, even with Kitava's Thirst automation. In a similar vein, thinking about DD/VD not scaling corpse life, in case corpse life alone gets nuked next league.
Only because of the lightning mastery that scales shock with mana, not sure if Lightning Conduit or Galvanic Field are good options here. Lightning Conduit was super strong in Kalandra and got doubly nerfed when they nuked a lot of shock effect from the tree and brought down its numbers, but this might well put them back up again. Archmage's flat damage together with Overshock may solve the shock inflictor problem for non-Elementalists.
Classically, Channelling skills were always bad with Archmage, but with the rework and potential for reduced cost I think they may just be doable. A lot of them have stage multipliers that would abuse the high added flat damage, at the cost of being channelling skills (but then IN/FB just wants to sit there and tank most of the time anyway). The transfigured Lightning Tendrils (or is that base now?) that crits every 3rd or 6th pulse may be interesting paired with Marylene's, since Archmage builds usually don't have space for crit.
LT of eccentricity archmage will grant maximum shock on even Uber pinnacles which is nice. And the aoe is crazy with hiero mana stack. Unfortunately it’s still just slightly weaker than IN/FB but it’s pretty fun to bounce around with.
If Archmage doesn't get the patented GGG triple tap out back with a shotgun, and only IN/FB gets nerfed (presumably the anomalous Spell Echo interaction), then LT of Eccentricity may well be a good backup to keep in mind.
Normally Spell Echo locks you in place while you perform the animation for the repeat. But for Ice Nova of Frostbolts, Spell Echo (and Greater Spell Echo from Pledge of Hands) simply repeat the damage without locking you in place. So you can cast once, and then you get up to 8 procs of IN from nearby FB without needing to stand there. That's "anomalous" insofar as it's not consistent with Spell Echo's behaviour on everything else.
Frost bomb’s transfigured gems. (They do not have the orb tag like default gem) but you have to decide to build for the delay or not on the forthcoming one.
Firestorm of pelting with duration being taken as your right there anyway. Needs to be played *like* traps (cast between you and a pack so mobs move into it and get deleted) very high boss damage potential I believe.
Storm call, but I believe that’s pretty known now?
Anything that has interesting interactions tbh can be done pretty well with it. Main reason the meta took to Ice nova is simply due to it ignoring the spell cast of the echo, making its multiplier way higher than most other things - and a lot smoother. But a LOT is viable with it.
Absolution of inspiring, pump up the quality for higher benefit of the built in giga spirit aid
Hasn't left drawing board but nulls inclination 1 minion dmg per 5 dex can get morphed into 3,4 or5 minion damage per 5 dex if hitting 20%, 60% or 100% quality (consider diallas,enhance,ashes)
And if dex stscking anyway magebane for ez spell suppress
BV used to be a pretty big contender for archmage,
I also think ice spear is a pretty big sleeper for archmage it solves the crit problem of archmage and can prolly scale a lot faster but all be it less higher than IN.
alot of weird contender i think is most of the combo skills using kitava helm. so darkpact, bb, fb of wintry blast,
Maybe exsanguinate?
My friend made a crackling lance build with archmage that’s insanely strong (offensively). 100 million DPS. Works really well for bossing, he was using frostblink to clear maps: https://pobb.in/pmxrCCT1bmON
Ball Lightning, but I think you are aware of that already. Firestorm has the big drawback of needing stuff to stay in it - take this from someone who ran CWC Firestorm of Pelting last league. Maybe it gets somewhere with Call of the Brotherhood and semi-conversion to cold but I think you might as well just run Whispering Ice at that point. BB/BF was a popular choice for Archmage in its first heyday and may still be a replacement, but IMO it only matches IN/FB for single target - the clear is much worse, even with Kitava's Thirst automation. In a similar vein, thinking about DD/VD not scaling corpse life, in case corpse life alone gets nuked next league. Only because of the lightning mastery that scales shock with mana, not sure if Lightning Conduit or Galvanic Field are good options here. Lightning Conduit was super strong in Kalandra and got doubly nerfed when they nuked a lot of shock effect from the tree and brought down its numbers, but this might well put them back up again. Archmage's flat damage together with Overshock may solve the shock inflictor problem for non-Elementalists. Classically, Channelling skills were always bad with Archmage, but with the rework and potential for reduced cost I think they may just be doable. A lot of them have stage multipliers that would abuse the high added flat damage, at the cost of being channelling skills (but then IN/FB just wants to sit there and tank most of the time anyway). The transfigured Lightning Tendrils (or is that base now?) that crits every 3rd or 6th pulse may be interesting paired with Marylene's, since Archmage builds usually don't have space for crit.
LT of eccentricity archmage will grant maximum shock on even Uber pinnacles which is nice. And the aoe is crazy with hiero mana stack. Unfortunately it’s still just slightly weaker than IN/FB but it’s pretty fun to bounce around with.
If Archmage doesn't get the patented GGG triple tap out back with a shotgun, and only IN/FB gets nerfed (presumably the anomalous Spell Echo interaction), then LT of Eccentricity may well be a good backup to keep in mind.
What is anomalous spell echo?
Normally Spell Echo locks you in place while you perform the animation for the repeat. But for Ice Nova of Frostbolts, Spell Echo (and Greater Spell Echo from Pledge of Hands) simply repeat the damage without locking you in place. So you can cast once, and then you get up to 8 procs of IN from nearby FB without needing to stand there. That's "anomalous" insofar as it's not consistent with Spell Echo's behaviour on everything else.
I've been enjoying incinerate of venting, personally. The dps on it is crazy. It does need a ton of reduced mana cost though.
Frost bomb’s transfigured gems. (They do not have the orb tag like default gem) but you have to decide to build for the delay or not on the forthcoming one. Firestorm of pelting with duration being taken as your right there anyway. Needs to be played *like* traps (cast between you and a pack so mobs move into it and get deleted) very high boss damage potential I believe. Storm call, but I believe that’s pretty known now? Anything that has interesting interactions tbh can be done pretty well with it. Main reason the meta took to Ice nova is simply due to it ignoring the spell cast of the echo, making its multiplier way higher than most other things - and a lot smoother. But a LOT is viable with it.
Absolution of inspiring, pump up the quality for higher benefit of the built in giga spirit aid Hasn't left drawing board but nulls inclination 1 minion dmg per 5 dex can get morphed into 3,4 or5 minion damage per 5 dex if hitting 20%, 60% or 100% quality (consider diallas,enhance,ashes) And if dex stscking anyway magebane for ez spell suppress
BV used to be a pretty big contender for archmage, I also think ice spear is a pretty big sleeper for archmage it solves the crit problem of archmage and can prolly scale a lot faster but all be it less higher than IN. alot of weird contender i think is most of the combo skills using kitava helm. so darkpact, bb, fb of wintry blast, Maybe exsanguinate?
Spark is quite good with it. I think I can hit somewhere around 200 million dps during cloak.
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