11 replies to this topic

[3096230415192656890]

Arch Mage Primary Talent: SPL

Secondary Talent: CON

Alternate Secondary: WIS

 

Arch Mage Unlisted Skill Effects:

• Mystery Illusion - 14 ticks over 4 seconds. Restores 4 AP
• Crimson Arrow - does 1 hit to enemies along the path of the arrow and 1 additional hit in a 7x7 cell radius around the arrow target. Target takes 100% + 150% listed skill damage. Non-targeted enemies caught in AOE take 100 + 100% listed skill damage. During Climax, all enemies in the AOE will take 150% of the listed skill damage from the explosion instead.
• Floral Flare Road / All Bloom / Violent Quake - Spawned objects are treated as having their own Line of Sight independent of the caster when dealing damage. Allows these skills to hit enemies behind walls and obstacles

Arch Mage Skill Review (Opinion Only)

 

Non-AP Skills

• Soul Vulcan Strike: The only truly good skill as of Patch 14/09/2023. Soul Vulcan Strike has large AOE and is superior in damage to Soul Expansion even with 2x Soul Expansion Ring and Old Magic Stone Hat. This makes Soul Vulcan Strike superb as a complement to Comet, allowing it to shred Ghost enemies that Comet can't hit without needing to swap to Soul Expansion Rings. A must-have for all Comet users, and, given the slim pickings available, probably other builds as well.
• Mystery Illusion: Arch Mage version of Psychic Wave. There's technically a number of good things to say about this skill, including relatively high base damage (compared to the rest of our junk 4th job spells), decent AOE, high hit rate and so on. However, it can't compare to OCP or card strengthened Warlock skills, has a CD as long as it's duration and is further let down by being Shadow, which means there are enemies immune to it in every endgame dungeon except Odin 4. As a kicker, the only real way to get Shadow magic damage boosts is from Dy cards. The main value of this skill to Arch Mages at this patch is that it's got 4 AP and doesn't require a target to cast.
• Frozen Slash: See above. Smaller AOE and even worse damage, with a 4s cooldown time. Which doesn't matter since you're only using it to charge AP

 

AP Skills

• Destructive Hurricane - Climax 4: Coming to the first AP spender, Destructive Hurricane at Climax 4 is a 15 minute self-buff for 100 matk and 30% wind damage. This is obviously best for Pazuzu users, but flat 100 matk also benefits every other type of Arch Mage. Sadly, it's bogged down by our current magic damage cap - Physical classes may have an increased damage cap to 30 million, but Magic damage is still capped at 21 million. This means that Destructive Hurricane often ends up bumping spell damage (for well geared players) above 21 million and causes spells to miss and most players probably can't be arsed to sit down and figure out setups to maximize damage with and without Destructive Hurricane. This is arguably the best general purpose AP spender if you can't hit damage cap, but one of the worst if you can. Use once after activating Climax, and again before Climax runs out to enjoy 20 minutes of increased firepower.
• Crystal Impact - Climax 1: This has surprisingly become one of my favourite and most used AP spenders. Crystal Impact at Climax 1 becomes a 15 minute party-wide buff for 300 def and 100 mdef, which really helps out the already squishy Arch Mage. Use once after activating Climax, and again before Climax runs out to enjoy 20 minutes of increased tankiness.
• Astral Strike - I really, really wanted to like this skill. On one hand, it has incredible on-paper skill damage, it looks fantastic and for Comet Mages what can be better than more Comets? On the other hand, it costs 150 AP, has an unreasonable skill budget, a relatively small AOE and isn't particularly practical. Might be worth picking up if you play in parties with a dedicated tank, if you're that good at kiting while keeping the target in the damage AOE, or if you just want to see more Comet. It's still a powerful skill, no mistake, but it'll only really shine once we can build AP fast enough to use the skill more than once every 2-3 minutes.
• All Bloom - Climax 4: The old standby from other servers where 0s cd Comet doesn't exist. 100% fire resistance reduction is nothing to sniff at, and pairing this with spellbook True Kathryn Crimson Rocks gives you the best bang for your buck. If Crimson Rock is your main damage dealer, this is a surprisingly potent use of your AP and should not be underestimated.

 

The Rest of Them: Too slow (CD, ACD), too weak, and/or too random to consider. Rock Down, Crimson Arrow and Thunder Cannon additionally require a target, making them inefficient for AP charging. Use these for the fun of it.

Edited by 3096230415192656890, 19 September 2023 - 08:00 PM.

[slayerherosk2222]

Thank you so much for the sharing. 

[Quoc]

Astra Strike though is considered something just a different skill that's like Comet right? I feel like the build isn't that compatible other than the fact MATK+Neutral damage while Comet specific effect won't help it.

[3096230415192656890]

Astra Strike though is considered something just a different skill that's like Comet right? I feel like the build isn't that compatible other than the fact MATK+Neutral damage while Comet specific effect won't help it.

 

Yes, it doesn't benefit from Comet skill modifiers.

 

Nevertheless, it does 6000% + 2000%*50 MATK across 15 seconds, and double that against dragons and undead. There is no harm in firing it off then letting it do its thing while you continue to hammer away with regular comets, assuming you can address the other problems with the skill.

Edited by 3096230415192656890, 20 September 2023 - 08:05 PM.

[mlmf]

My arch mage's astral strike hits for 7M at the initial comet, assuming the %s are right, that means astral strike on its own would total around 120m before it ends, or 180m if comet debuff already there. Sounds incredible... until i realized my comet was already hitting 19m at first shot, then 28.5m(if it registers) for every other, and i can get well over 30 shots in that 15 seconds. Current OCP, cards, and Automatic Enchants just make 3rd job skills vastly superior, wait a year of OCP gears for 4th job skills, and they may be superior by then

Edited by mlmf, 20 September 2023 - 08:45 PM.

[3096230415192656890]

My arch mage's astral strike hits for 7M at the initial comet, assuming the %s are right, that means astral strike on its own would total around 120m before it ends, or 180m if comet debuff already there. Sounds incredible... until i realized my comet was already hitting 19m at first shot, then 28.5m(if it registers) for every other, and i can get well over 30 shots in that 15 seconds. Current OCP, cards, and Automatic Enchants just make 3rd job skills vastly superior, wait a year of OCP gears for 4th job skills, and they may be superior by then

 

 

That's entirely fair and I do agree. If you're just comparing the two skills on damage and requirements, Astral Strike is definitely behind Comet for all the reasons you stated. Nevertheless, I thought it was necessary to at least put it in to acknowledge that 1 Astral Strike + 29 Comets does do more damage than just firing 30 Comets.

 

There's also the simple and annoying fact that due to the current level of comet damage and the 21m magic damage cap, the low damage from Astral Strike we currently have is still ironically the best DPS boost using AP in the current patch, at least for those 15s. I had to switch out one of my Geffenia Tools to a Soul Expansion Ring and i'll still do 0 damage on follow up comets if I use a damage boosting lower headgear..

Edited by 3096230415192656890, 20 September 2023 - 09:20 PM.

[Quoc]

Is there an effective way to build AP? I feel like every time I'm trying to build AP for Astral, I'm wasting time not casting another Comet.

[3096230415192656890]

Is there an effective way to build AP? I feel like every time I'm trying to build AP for Astral, I'm wasting time not casting another Comet.

There isn't, that's one of the reasons I gave for Astral Strike failing to meet expectations. It'll probably only shine once we get good ways to build AP fast, but by then we'll probably be moving away from Comet/Neutral as bread and butter..

 

The two good ways of building AP atm are to just do a tap of frozen slash every so often. You can halve the required time by going frozen slash > mystery illusion, but you're still ultimately wasting time if there are enemies and you're not casting comet.

Edited by 3096230415192656890, 02 October 2023 - 10:10 PM.

[Quoc]

There isn't, that's one of the reasons I gave for Astral Strike failing to meet expectations. It'll probably only shine once we get good ways to build AP fast, but by then we'll probably be moving away from Comet/Neutral as bread and butter..

 

The two good ways of building AP atm are to just do a tap of frozen slash every so often. You can halve the required time by going frozen slash > mystery illusion, but you're still ultimately wasting time if there are enemies and you're not casting comet.

Yeah I think that's the major thing I don't like about Arch Mage. It's quite literally using Frozen Slash whenever you can and pretty much nothing else. It's not used for damage, it's literally just a meter that you have to remind yourself to refill.

 

If it was like say cast Comet and it recovers AP and then that eventually builds into Astral, that would be more seamless. I get that they won't do that because it's two different class trees but that's just an example. I'd like to incorporate AP into gameplay than "use this skill without purpose until you gain enough AP to use another skill". Maybe we're just too early in for it to work but unfortunate if that's the case anyways as we definitely got an incomplete product at launch.

 

Realistically, I think it would make sense for the AP system would work better if it gained more AP dependent on how many targets you hit. Like +4 AP just for casting and caps out at +10 AP total. That way it'll keep us actively engaged in using the spells against whatever we're up against.

Edited by Quoc, 03 October 2023 - 12:05 PM.

[slayerherosk2222]

Yeah I think that's the major thing I don't like about Arch Mage. It's quite literally using Frozen Slash whenever you can and pretty much nothing else. It's not used for damage, it's literally just a meter that you have to remind yourself to refill.

If it was like say cast Comet and it recovers AP and then that eventually builds into Astral, that would be more seamless. I get that they won't do that because it's two different class trees but that's just an example. I'd like to incorporate AP into gameplay than "use this skill without purpose until you gain enough AP to use another skill". Maybe we're just too early in for it to work but unfortunate if that's the case anyways as we definitely got an incomplete product at launch.

Realistically, I think it would make sense for the AP system would work better if it gained more AP dependent on how many targets you hit. Like +4 AP just for casting and caps out at +10 AP total. That way it'll keep us actively engaged in using the spells against whatever we're up against.

Is the 4th class skill useful for WL? Even for the self buff, it takes way too long to charge AP then cast a buff.. spamming comet is still way much convenient and playable.. does anyone really use the AP system?

[Frans91]

Hiii...

I do Arch Mage Job Change Quest, 
but I can't finishing the quest to kill 10 monster and bring 1 burning heart, In quest window is completed, and back to NPC maggie not goes to next mission.
when i back to city, the quest reset to 0/10 kill again... I did it for 10 times and still cant goes to next quest...

are anybody has same problem like me?

 

 

[alvaro89]

Hiii...

I do Arch Mage Job Change Quest, 
but I can't finishing the quest to kill 10 monster and bring 1 burning heart, In quest window is completed, and back to NPC maggie not goes to next mission.
when i back to city, the quest reset to 0/10 kill again... I did it for 10 times and still cant goes to next quest...

are anybody has same problem like me?

 

i got the same problem, is the  job change quest buged?