[1.1.4.2] Emperor's Archmage: All Content Viable, 6m Crucible Gladiator 150-170, Easy to Gear Sorceress [c+][sr+][vid][g3]

*OG Sorc is back

Foreword*

*Old introduction from the time of when Ashes of Malmouth monsters were introduced in Crucible and on the cusp of DA meta

With the introduction of the Ashes of Malmouth waves in Crucible a lot of players just gave up on this game mod in Single Player, especially on playing waves 150-170 in Gladiator. And let’s be honest, it’s not that fun to play. Some builds cannot even come close to being viable there (despite being decent in pre-aom 130-150 Crucible Gladiator), some builds need very specific monster infrequent items in order to be able to play it. And then there is a great divide and even disparity between mastery combos. Spellbinders, everything Soldier, Mage Hunters, dominate the meta some due to permanent invulnerability, some because of, you know, shields.

I wanted to make my old Sorcerer an ultimate caster build. Yes, it’s the same character that used to be a People’s Gunslinger long before Ashes of Malmouth, then it became a furious melee CT Sorc. It’s time for her to ascend into the rank which only few legendary elite casters achieved: Archmage.

The Build

[1.1.4.2] Update

Reworked the build completely. Build is still a tanky caster, but damage output went thru the roof compared to the previous iteration. Unfortunately, Cataclysm set and Warpfire had to go.

[1.1.1.1] Shattered Realm Update

Managed to close 70-71 rifts with this build. 75 is possible with a lucky draw. Overall, build is a solid choice to farm 65-66 consistently. Added videos from Shattered Realm and updated Grimtools link.

[1.0.6.1] Update

Since Crucible is softer nowadays I ditched a good chunk of DA on this build in favour of more offensive setup devotion wise. I also took people’s favourite Meteor Shower since Warpfire’s burn duration has been nerfed. Overall, better performance across the board, still very safe to play (I would definitely recommend it for Hardcore) and now killing times are even faster. Uploaded a 150-170 4 buffs/no banner run.

Decided to buff build’s Spirit to get even more damage for our spells. Plus reassigned devotions.

<<<< GRIMTOOLS >>>>*

*Craft for Stun resist

<<<< GRIMTOOLS FOR SR >>>>*

**Courtesy of @John_Smith

Gear

I’ve tested quite few item combinations for this build. The one that is in the Grim Tools is by far the superior one. We craft all our gear for Stun resist. Try to get 6% DA Chestguard of Justice. It goes without saying that high cdr on off-hand is optimal.

Skills and Devotions

Again, everything has been tested thru and thru, trust me on this. Everything is self-explantory. We do need Vindictive Flame and Ulzuin’s Wrath to proc our procs. We do need 12/12 Blast Shield to be able to take a stand during its duration no matter who we face. And Cannister Bomb is a better performer than Devastation for this build, because it has Burn damage, lower cooldown and higher single target damage and spreads Eldritch Fire devotion amazingly well.

Leveling and Attribute points distribution

Leveling as Arcanist is pretty easy, granted skill from Searing Ember or from Flintcore bolts coupled with Olexra’s Flash Freeze can take us very far (to the point where we can start equipping mythical gears).

Put all attribute points into physique or you can put ~20-25 points into spirit for another damage boost since we have such a great spirit scaling on this build.

The Showdown

How to play

In Main Campaign it’s pretty straightforward all out offensive style. We teleport, throw BWC/Flashbang, pop CT, reset cooldowns with Cannister Bomb, charge to our next target (all while bombarding everything that didn’t burn alive with Stormfire from weapon component). Everything melts very fast, everything is facetankable except Gargabol. Use mines when you come across cluster of heroes, or against purple bosses. You can choose to use mirror or not to use it, it’s very hard to die in Campaign either way. This build would be great for Hardcore fast farming, very swift and very safe. Against Kuba, pop mines, pop BWC, usual routine, use mirror more often to facetank him, don’t stand in puddles, not because it’s dangerous, but because he heals thru them and it makes the fight longer. Against Grava’Thul: kiting is prefered, but try to kite around your own cluster of mines, take stands when you have mirror or blast shield up, watch out for his nullification projectile, it can kill you thru mirror. Overall, not an easy fight, can’t get critted, but can get whacked by nullification, so watch out for that. Stay close to him during your mirror/blast shield uptime so he doesn’t cast nullification. As long as he casts it, start kiting, and keep that nullification projectile in sight. As soon as it disappears, charge him and unload everything you have.

In Crucible, watch out for Fabius/Iron Maiden combo, for some reason those two basterds together can give you hard time when you are playing without buffs/banner, so don’t facetank them, just take stands when mirror/blast shield is up (pop mines when you mirror cooldown is nearly up). When kiting, don’t forget to throw flashbangs/BWC’s and pop CT while mobs are chasing you. Even against 4 big bosses, you have to take a stand when your mirror or blast shield is up, to burst them. Your weak spot is aether resistance overcap (just 25%), so play safe against Anasteria, she can kill you even thru Blast Shield. Just surrond her with mines/bwc, and run around her, dodging her Devastation and popping your offensive skills, always use mirror with her when possible. Reaper is surprisingly easy with this build, he dies pretty fast chasing you and his OA seems to be insufficient to do you any real harm. Watch out for Ben’Jahr + Iron Maiden combos, always seperate Ben’Jahr from other Nemeses, his DA shred is pretty dangerous.

Stats

General

Magical

Videos

5:46 Crucible run

5:59 Crucible run

John Smith’s Shards 75-76 runs (w/Elem. res. mutator)

John Smith’s Shards 75-76 runs 2(w/Elem. res. mutator AGAIN)

Shard 71 OLD

Shard 70 OLD

Crucible Gladiator 4 buffs/no banners 150-170 10:40 run OLD

Crucible Gladiator 130-150 extra spawn no buffs/no banners OLD

Kubacabra OLD

Ancient Grove (boss fight is very sloppy) OLD

Mad Queen OLD

Grava’Thul OLD

In Conclusion

Want to thank everyone who posts original and non-conventional builds to this forum, got inspired by few of them, especially by the Chinese DA meta.

7 Likes

Mogdrogen kill confirmed by user Saablic

Ravager kill confirmed by user Saablic

Read your build, I have some advices:
-A good rolled kymon badge (harmonious/stalwart/ incorrupted of vitality/readiness) beats Myth of divinity, fixed your aether/chaos resis as well.
Stormfire deals morderate dmg, 3 points on fire strike/ explosive strike is better.
3 pieces Myth justice make you more tanky with good benefits (+32 flat dmg, 70 DA, 190% fire/burn dmg), save you some free component slots too.
Overcapped blast shield is not necessary, you can save points then spend on elemental balance or themite mine.

Thanks for the input, but no.

  • Mark of Divinity adds ~800 health (build is starved on health points), increases maximum elemental resistance (huge deal in Crucible), decreases incoming damage from Aetherials (again, huge deal in Crucible) and lets me overcap Flame Touched. Cheat Death proc is massive in most toughest fights (like Crucible 150-170 and Ravager), lets you fight with more confidence

  • Stormfire actually deals bigger damage than 5 points in Fire Strike/5 points in Explosive Strike. I tested it. Not only that, it has a shotgun effect (because it has 3-4 fragments) which is also good for proccing stuff against crowds. And it’s ranged and very spammable because we have increased casting speed as opposed to very slow attack speed and neccessity to be in melee range. And Warpfire’s weapon damage is a joke, this weapon sucks for melee.

  • Faceguard of Justice is an option, but again, we have stacked enough DA for a ranged build, we are going to lose OA/evade plus radius/damage to BWC (latter is very important since we need BWC to touch as many monsters as possible due to its OA shred and physical damage reduction). %Fire/Burn damage gain is negligible, and flat fire damage is almost useless for this build.

Again, I’ve been testing this shit for a week, different gear combinations, different skill combinations, different devotions. This is the best version so far, everything in it is for a reason, everything clicks. And yes, even 16/12 (not 15/12) Blast Shield is needed too.

Nice Build Lee !
I love Phoenix Constellation
Combine with Blast Shield + Maivens, they really give you very nice damage absorption
Not to mention CDR Mirror + High Potency :smiley:

Coming from someone who loves my MIs, I really love how you always manage to present no MI builds even though you probably have many usable ones (you giving away lots of them makes me conclude that).

I love the gear choices. Eveything is well-thought out. I’m a fan of Eternity so I was quite surprised about not having it here but it all makes sense. Your hp requires you to have that magic number 16 on Blast shield as well as the mobility from the skill.

There’s only one thing I disagree with what you wrote. You mentioned the top classes as: Spellbinder, Soldier, Mage Hunter.
My personal rankings are: Spellbinder, soldier, sorc, purifier. In that order :stuck_out_tongue:

Ah, thanks, person who understands my gear/skill choices :slight_smile:

Eternity might be an option, but oa/da, coupled with mobility skill that is reset by TD is just impossible to beat. Even if cc-resists on Korvaak’s are of no use to this build. Having this mobility skill makes it a blast to play in campaign, where with this amount of defense you can just relax and facetank and wreck everything.

And I do have plenty of good greens. Posted few of them to Trophy room even. And crafted like couple of thousands of boots already probably. But truth is, for this build legendary pants and boots beat mi’s. Maybe pants could be replaced by stalwart of dranghoul Solael’s or Grava pants, but that spirit boost plus immunity to skill distruption plus a proc that is actually pretty freaking strong makes Arcane Harmony Leggings damn hard to beat.

I love that you list sorc as one of the strongest classes, but I think it’s beaten by Mage Hunters (rune builds are insane), Elementalists (Light Defender plus new Mythical Rune of Elgoloth) and maybe even Witch Hunters (phantasmal blades).

The boots is the most replaceable part, imo. I just prefer having more hp that I can afford dropping blast shield a bit and invest more on Vindictive flame to get movespeed overcap, and coupled can with maxed slow res, it’s virtually unslowable. I’m rocking Infernal Knight on mine though so we have a bit of difference in what we experience in crucible.

I love that you list sorc as one of the strongest classes, but I think it’s beaten by Mage Hunters (rune builds are insane), Elementalists (Light Defender plus new Mythical Rune of Elgoloth) and maybe even Witch Hunters (phantasmal blades).

My rankings are more on versatility and survivability rather than cleartime. Spellbinder has lots of item options, though it’s confined to aether. Same with sorc but with fire. Soldier has a lot of build options from physical, bleed to aether or poison, but only s&b is good. Purifier has the most varied build types (g&b, 2h, caster, even dw) but is also confined to fire. All of these though have very good survivability while not being confined to just one build. Mage Hunter is close but can only pick one of Censure or Star pact for either damage reduction or consistent double mirrors.

I actually haven’t heard of Elementalists in cruci yet. It’s usually Vindicator or warder who uses the LD set as I’ve seen, cause they’re the ones who can easily get DA. Still, they’re confined to one build and one set of items. Same with WH. I only know Fluff’s build.

Just when I was thinking about levelling my old CT Sorcerer to 100. This build is great, thanks for sharing !

Do you really think this build is easy to gear up? Come on… :wink:

No problem, hope you have a blast with it!

It is relatively easy to gear for a build that can clear all content. Surely it’s not a beginner build with faction gear, but 0 mi’s and 6 craftable items for a build that can complete hardest content, you really think that’s asking much? Come on now.

All of the items are not hard to trade at all, I sell most of them for 20-25 scavenged platings each, ask anyone who has ever traded with me on this forum (and it’s a lot of people). And if you lack recepies you can ask people in trading thread to craft it for you, I personally crafted dozens of gear pieces for people from this forum free of charge.

Easier than many cruci builds for sure. And with the Gargabol dungeon having a blueprint vendor, it’s easier to find them.

Well I only Play solo self found. So it’s only hard to gear up for me I supose… I completely forgot about trading. Yeah with trading IT can be quite easy, I agree.

Thanks for reminding me this vendor. I’vejust started playing HC and I need a lot of blueprints…

Added a new video of Mad Queen kill. Killing time is around 20-22 seconds, not the greatest, but decent for mostly DoT build.

Great build, added it to my compilation thread.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, it can do better with some practice, build does require some skill with timings and some getting used to, took me quite a bit to master it.

Added a new video of Grava fight, very annoying encounter, because his nullification instakills us thru mirror and medal’s cheat death proc. His melee attacks are not scary at all though.

Also added “How to play” section.

Enjoy, folks!

Hi there

I am missing alot of recipes, is there a way to trade recipes ? I see you are selling items for 25 Scavenged platings… how do I go about in trading ?

Would love to learn.

Regards
Gogga

Hi, I personally don’t trade recepies since I learn them as soon as I drop them. Some players do trade them.

However, if you are taking part in forum trading, you can just ask someone to craft it for you with your mats. I craft stuff for people all the time for free, some ask small fee for it. Just find someone who can craft all this stuff.

Hell, just add me: mad_lee, prepare all the mats and I will craft it for you.

Is this viable without AoM exp?