Archmage is far and away the worst tree in DDO, and desperately needs some love. So I decided to write up a hypothetical revamp of the Archmage tree. I take some time to discuss what is good and bad about the tree, and then below show the new tree that I came up with. I would love to hear your thoughts on it!
Pros:
New Idea:
There will still be paths to choose from, however they are slightly more broad, and allow the tree to give useful abilities from multiple spell schools, instead of being so pigeonholed into only using one school. There are three paths in this revamp:
With this intro done, here is my hypothetical archmage revamp (changes are in blue). Note that with some of the new skills, I have no idea how hard to code them would be, but I think the concepts are interesting, and at least on their face, realistic:
Additional Changes:
Notes on Elemental Evangelion (Elementalist tier 5)
And that's about it! I'm curious to hear what people think about some of the ideas in here. Note that the numbers were not thought out too much, so the math may not be totally balanced. Some things (mainly the elementalist stuff) may be super overtuned, but the concepts are the more important thing here.
Pros:
- The broad idea is there, you pick a school or path of some sort and you gain abilities based on that path.
- It is clear that the goal of the tree for DPS casters was to use multiple elements of spells, instead of just picking one like most other casters (sorc, alch, etc).
- DC casting, well, you get DC's and some random SLA's. Since there is not much flavor here, it allows more freedom with my revamp.
- It is supposed to be either a DC tree or a DPS tree, however does neither well.
- The tree gives DCs, but gives next to nothing else for DC casters. The useful SLAs are sparse, and often behind different schools, meaning you have to take 4 useless SLAs to get one good one.
- The DPS in the tree is terrible. Arcane bolt and blast did not get their damage increased when arcane spells got their scaling increased (which was many years ago at this point), and are worse than very low level spells like scorch. In addition, the critical chance in the tree is only 4% total, and spell power is found nearly nowhere.
- There are nearly no unique abilities that give the tree any appeal. The SLAs are all spells that wizards can just take with their many spell slots, and the tier 5's are not interesting at all. The only one that is somewhat interesting is arcane supremacy, however it does not do nearly enough to warrant taking this tree as your tier 5.
- Interesting skills: Every core and every t5 (other than arcane supremacy) is either uninspired, bad, or both. There needs to be some flair added to make the tree more appealing
- Useful SLAs: Most of the SLAs suck. Make them better.
- More damage. For a tree that is supposed to also be able to deal some damage, there are 3 possible places to get spell power, and a critical line that only gives 4% crit chance. This does not come close to what is needed to compete with other trees.
- On this point, if multiple spells elements are going to be used (which was at least the interpretation I got from this tree), this tree is going to have to heavily incentivize using multiple elements somehow. Using only one element makes gearing, feat, and epic destiny choices much easier. It will not be possible to match the spell power/damage of other builds if this tree uses numbers that are roughly equivalent to other caster trees. There needs to be some major reason to use multiple spell elements in this tree.
New Idea:
There will still be paths to choose from, however they are slightly more broad, and allow the tree to give useful abilities from multiple spell schools, instead of being so pigeonholed into only using one school. There are three paths in this revamp:
- Elementalist: DPS caster that uses elemental (fire, cold, electric, acid) spells
- Zephyr: DPS caster that uses force/untyped spells
- Spellweaver: DC caster that uses enchantment/illusion/transmutation/abjuration spells
With this intro done, here is my hypothetical archmage revamp (changes are in blue). Note that with some of the new skills, I have no idea how hard to code them would be, but I think the concepts are interesting, and at least on their face, realistic:
- Cores:
- Magical Initiate: For every action point you spend in this tree, you gain 1.5 universal spell power and 2 spell points.
- Choose your Path:
- Elementalist: +3% critical multiplier to fire, cold, electric, and acid spells. Every core taken after this also grants +3% critical multiplier to fire, cold, electric, and acid spells.
- Zephyr: +3% crit multiplier to force spells. Every core taken after this also grants +3% crit multiplier to force spells.
- Spellweaver: For every 2 cores you take in this tree, all metamagic feats cost 1 less spell point.
- Choose One (SLA):
- Lightning Bolt SLA (Requires Elementalist)
- Chain Missiles SLA (Requires Zephyr)
- Freedom of Movement SLA (Requires Spellweaver)
- Choose One (SLA):
- Cone of Cold SLA (Requires Elementalist)
- Force Missiles SLA (Requires Zephyr)
- Phantasmal Killer SLA (Requires Spellweaver)
- Choose One:
- Earth, Wind, and Fire: +2 caster level and max caster level with fire, cold, electric, and acid spells. Fire, cold, electric, and acid spells now use the higher of evocation and conjuration DCs (Requires Elementalist)
- Meteoric Impact: Meteor swarm's fire damage is converted to untyped damage (and also has no save), and meteor swarm is now considered a magic missile spell for the purposes of this tree (Requires Zephyr)
- Mystic Deterioration: When an enemy succeeds a fortitude, reflex, or will save, that save is reduced by 1. Stacks up to 3 times (Requires Spellweaver)
- Master of Magic: +4 int, +20 spellcraft
- Harmony in Destruction: new SLA: Meteacidthunderberg: (combination of meteor swarm, acid well, thunderstroke, and iceberg). Deal 1d3+5 fire, cold, electric, and acid damage per caster level to enemies in an area, up to caster level 20. Passive: +10 fire, cold, lighting, and acid spell power (Requires Elementalist)
- Dust to Dust: new SLA: Enhanced Disintegration: Deal 28-30 untyped damage per caster level, up to caster level 20. This spell passes through enemies (like lightning bolt). Passive: If you take the master of knowledge epic feat, both the disintegrate and enhanced disintegrate spells will give a stack of mental honing. (Requires Zephyr)
- Mental Mastermind: new SLA: Cerebrum Shackles (SP: 50, Cooldown: 2 minutes). Choose a target. Every time the target attacks or casts a spell, it takes damage equal to .75% of its max health, and non-bosses are paralyzed for 2 seconds. No save. Duration: 1 minute, or until 7.5% of the target's max health is dealt by this ability. Passive: +1 to enchantment/illusion/transmutation/abjuration DCs (Requires Spellweaver)
- Tier 1:
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Choose One:
- Acid Splash SLA (Requires Elementalist)
- Magic Missile SLA (Requires Zephyr)
- Color Spray SLA (Requires Spellweaver)
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Subtle Spellcasting: Your damaging spells generate 10%/20%/30% less hate than they normally would, making enemies less likely to attack you.
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Energy of the Scholar: Your studies have increased your maximum Spell Points by an additional 30/60/90.
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1) Spell Critical: Elemental and Force I: Your Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Force and Untyped damage spells have an additional 2% chance to critically hit.
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Wand and Scroll Mastery: +25%/+50%/+75% effectiveness from your wands, scrolls, and other items that cast spells, and +1/+3/+6 to the save DC of your offensive wands. Taking Wand and Scroll Mastery in one enhancement tree will block its availability in other enhancement trees.
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Choose One:
- Tier 2:
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 3, Requirement: Middle Efficient Metamagic) Efficient Metamagic: Choose one of the following Metamagic feats. Reduce the spell point cost of using that Metamagic. (Quicken, Empower, Maximize, Enlarge)
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 3) Efficient Metamagic: Choose one of the following Metamagic feats. Reduce the spell point cost of using that Metamagic. (Quicken, Empower, Maximize, Enlarge)
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 3, Requirement: Middle Efficient Metamagic) Efficient Metamagic: Choose one of the following Metamagic feats. Reduce the spell point cost of using that Metamagic. (Quicken, Empower, Maximize, Enlarge)
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1, Requires Previous Spell Critical) Spell Critical: Elemental and Force II: Your Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Force and Untyped damage spells have an additional 2% chance to critically hit.
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Traditionalist Caster: +3/+6/+10 Universal Spell Power when wielding an Orb or Staff. (Moved from Tier 1)
- Tier 3
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Choose One:
- Scorch SLA (Requires Elementalist)
- Arcane Bolt SLA (Requires Zephyr)
- Slow SLA (Requires Spellweaver)
- Empty
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Spell Penetration: +1 spell penetration per rank
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1, Requires Previous Spell Critical) Spell Critical: Elemental and Force III: Your Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Force and Untyped damage spells have an additional 2% chance to critically hit.
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1) Intelligence
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Choose One:
- Tier 4
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) Diligent Studies: +3/6/10 universal spell power
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 3, Requirement: Middle t2 Efficient Metamagic) Efficient Heighten: -1 spell point cost per level heightened
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1) Arcane Understanding: Choose One
- Elemental Prodigy: If fire, cold, electric, or acid damage you deal would heal an opponent, it instead deals no damage to that enemy (Requires Elementalist)
- Forceful Reproach: Whenever you cast a magic missile spell, you also cast gust of wind at the targeted enemy. This ability has an internal cooldown of 15 seconds (Requires Zephyr)
- Improved Wizardry: +1 Enchantment/Illusion/Transmutation/Abjuration DCs (Requires Spellweaver)
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1, Requires Previous Spell Critical) Spell Critical: Elemental and Force IV: Your Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Force and Untyped damage spells have an additional 2% chance to critically hit.
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1) Intelligence
- Tier 5
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) SLA:
- Primordial Punishment (SP: 45/35/25, Cooldown: 20/12/8 seconds). The chosen target takes 1d4+1 fire, cold, lightning, and acid damage per caster level every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Max caster level: 20 (Requires Elementalist)
- Arcane Blast SLA (Requires Zephyr)
- New SLA: Organic Scarecrow (SP: 50/40/30, Cooldown: 60/45/30 seconds). Choose a target. That enemy is confused, no save. The target takes -95% damage from all sources. Each enemy around the target must succeed a will save or immediately start attacking the target. (Uses max of enchantment/illusion/transmutation/abjuration DCs) Duration: 12 seconds (Requires Spellweaver)
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1) Arcane Enlightenment: Choose One:
- Elemental Evangelion: Whenever you cast a fire, cold, electric, or acid spell, you gain the 'Elemental Aptitude' buff for that element: 'Your elemental spells deal an additional 1d3 (element) damage per caster level'. If you cast a spell of an element that you have an Elemental Aptitude buff for, all Elemental Aptitude buffs are removed. If you have all 4 Elemental Aptitude buffs, and cast a fire, cold, electric, or acid spell, the spell is considered an automatic critical, gains +35% critical multiplier, and all elemental aptitude buffs are removed (Requires Elementalist)
- Strip Shields: Strip force and magic missile immunity upon dealing force damage. Magic missile spells gain +1 damage per missile (before scaling) per 5 wizard levels. Force missiles instead gains +2 damage per missile per 5 wizard levels. Magic missile spells also gain +1% crit chance per wizard level (Requires Zephyr)
- Symbiotic Spellcasting: Your spell casts empower your future spell casts (Requires Spellweaver)
- Any offensive illusion spell empowers your next offensive enchantment, transmutation, or abjuration spell with a 15% chance of casting phantasmal killer on affected enemies, in addition to the spell's original effects. Note that this chance is rolled separately on each enemy.
- Any offensive enchantment spell empowers your next offensive illusion, transmutation, or abjuration spell with casting sleep on all affected enemies, in addition to the spell's original effects.
- Any offensive transmutation spell empowers your next offensive illusion, enchantment, or abjuration spell with a 30% chance of casting flesh-to-stone on affected enemies, in addition to the spell's original effects. Note that this chance is rolled separately on each enemy.
- Any offensive abjuration spell empowers your next offensive illusion, enchantment, or transmutation spell with casting break enchantment on all affected enemies, in addition to the spell's original effects.
- Empty
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1, Requires Previous Spell Critical) Spell Critical: Elemental and Force V: Your Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, Force and Untyped damage spells have an additional 2% chance to critically hit.
- (AP: 2, Ranks: 1) Magical Adept: +1 to all DCs
- (AP: 1, Ranks: 3) SLA:
Additional Changes:
- Arcane Bolt now deals 1d6+3 damage per caster level, and no longer has a save
- Arcane Blast now deals 1d6+5 damage per caster level, and no longer has a save
- Force Missiles now has a maximum caster level of 20
- Bring about Destruction (draconic incarnation) also affects Primordial Punishment
Notes on Elemental Evangelion (Elementalist tier 5)
- Some spells deal damage with multiple elements. Those spells would only account for 1 element for this enhancement's purposes, however the element it could count for could be different.
- E.g: Burning Blood. If you cast burning blood with no elemental aptitude buffs, you would gain the fire elemental aptitude buff. If you already had the fire elemental aptitude buff, you would gain the acid elemental aptitude buff. If you already had the fire and acid elemental aptitude buffs, you would lose all elemental aptitude buffs.
And that's about it! I'm curious to hear what people think about some of the ideas in here. Note that the numbers were not thought out too much, so the math may not be totally balanced. Some things (mainly the elementalist stuff) may be super overtuned, but the concepts are the more important thing here.
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