The Elves of WAR: Meet the Archmage, levels 1-5

Massively's exclusive pre-NDA coverage of the Elves of Warhammer Online continues with this sneak peek at the beginning levels of the High Elf healer class, the Archmage.

The Archmage has an interesting mechanic it shares with the Destruction Goblin Shaman, a ying/yang relationship between his offensive and healing spells. Every time an Archmage casts a healing spell, he gains a point in Force up to 5 points maximum. Every point of Force will reduce the casting time of offensive spells by 20%. That means at maximum Force, your next nuke will be insta-cast. For offensive spells that are already insta-cast, each point of Force will increase that spells potency by 5%. Once an offensive spell is cast, Force resets to zero.

The same holds true in reverse. For every damage spell the Archmage casts, he gains a point of Tranquility, resetting the counter when he finally uses his stored up Tranquility to power a defensive spell. Out of combat, any gained points will quickly fade.

Level one through five spell details after the jump!

Upon creation, your Archmage begins with two spells, one offensive and one defensive. All spells take Action Points to cast which is equivalent to a mana pool. Action Points regenerate quickly while in combat. Spells automatically upgrade every time you level.

Level 1 - Radiant Lance
30 AP, 2s casting time, 100ft range
Deals 43 Spirit damage to your target

Level 1 - Healing Energy
60 AP, 1s casting time, 150ft range
Your target regains 33 health immediately, then continues to gain another 87 health over 9 seconds.

With these two, you head into the forest in the newbie area to find your quest mobs, target, nuke, nuke, nuke, nuke, nuke, instacast heal, loot, move on. You can set yourself as the recipient of all healing spells without losing targetting on your mob.

Level 2 - Law of Conductivity
30 AP, Instant cast, 100ft range
Deals 75 Spirit damage to yoru target over 15 seconds.

Ah, your first Damage Over Time spell. Drop this bad boy as your opening on a mob and you won't get to instaheal yourself as the mob will drop before you build up that much Tranquility. Also an excellent instacast spell for tagging mobs and doing damage on the run (i.e. RvR).

Level 3 - Lambent Aura
30 AP, Instant cast, 150ft range
Heals your target for 260 health over 15 seconds.

Your second Heal Over Time. Drop this on yourself after the mob gets the first few hits in along with Healing Energy and you won't have to single target heal yourself at the end of the fight. Also handy when multiple mobs are pounding on you. As you can imagine, this spell is invaluable in RvR as well for heal-and-go tactics.

Level 4 - Radiant Gaze
45 AP, Instant cast, 100ft range
Deals 129 spirit damage over 9 seconds and reduces your target's damage and chance to critically hit by 5%.

A second DOT! Drop this and Law of Conductivity on your opponent and watch their health get eaten away. This one has a shorter duration so you have to remember to reapply it about half way through a fight. It also has a 5 second cooldown so it's not as easy to use as LoC for tagging multiple mobs quickly (see Public Quest paragraph below).

Level 5 - Searing Touch
13 AP/sec, Instant Cast, 100ft range
You concentrate on your target for up to 6 seconds, repeatedly dealing 54 Spirit damage to them as long as you maintain your concentration.

High damage over a short period of time, but you can do nothing else. Still 300+ damage in 6 seconds is big chunk out of your opponent's health bar. Good when you have a tank or need to do a lot of damage quickly.

The PvE quests help you get a handle on spell rotation and usability. The House Arkaneth Public Quest allows you to use these spells in an entirely different way. You see, in PQ's you get rewarded at the end of it based on how much you contributed. As an Archmage with instacast DoTs, you are going to be on the top of the charts. Just drop a DoT (or two) on every single mob in the PQ area. If there are enough people there, all mobs will die too quickly to even take a swipe at you. With your ability to DoT multiple mobs, your total damage output for the PQ will at or near the top. On the final named mobs, stack the DoTs and pour on the Searing Touch.

That's it for today. Next week I'll cover levels 6-10 for the Archmage including a detaunt and your first Morale ability: a superheal.

	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our other exclusive Elves of War features and all of our previous Warhammer Online features. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!