October 18, 2022

Archmage Class

Master of the Arcane Arts

It’s AdventureQuest World’s 14th birthday, and Artix Entertainment’s 20th anniversary! To celebrate, we bring you a brand new endgame class that’s near and dear to our hearts and games- Archmage.

Archmage is a very flexible farming class that you can tailor to play to your style! Between two modes and scalable skills, this class is sure to have something for everyone.

While primarily a farming class, Archmage can also fill a small variety of roles at a very high level, including some solo capability and debuffing capability.

A preview of the class can be seen here

How to Unlock the Class

Speak to Warlic in /dragonrune hall to begin the questline for Archmage. Like any other endgame class, this is a long and difficult journey you will undertake to unlock the class. You can begin this 10-quest saga at level 60, but the requirements of the quests will increase as you progress through them, requiring you to be level 80 to finish the class. The class will not be available for ACs.

The quests will take you through a journey to master the Arcane arts and learn about the various facets of magic. You’ll go through many fights, both easy and hard, and overcome some of the strongest fights in the game to achieve the class. Insignias will NOT be required to finish the class, but can be used as shortcuts for several of the requirements, speeding along players who wish to take on the extra challenge.

After you finish the questline, you can take on an extra extremely challenging quest to empower your new armor and weapon and make them color custom!

And now, the class abilities!

Description: Recommended enhancements: Wizard. Mana is a permeating force, present in all life and space. Archmages guide the flow of free-flowing mana in the air, creating phenomena in the physical world and altering its course. 

Stat Model: Offensive Caster

Mana Regen: Archmages read the flow of the Ley Lines around them, regenerating mana only with the use of certain abilities. 

Skill Breakdown:

Incantation
Rank needed: 1 / Auto Attack
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 3
Type: Status
Range: Infinite
Cooldown: 1.5 seconds

Incant an unavoidable status spell and inflict your foes with Leywilt, reducing Dodge by 35%, Damage by 25%, and Crit Chance by 15% for 20 seconds.

Immolation
Rank needed: 1
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 3
Type: Magical
Range: Infinite
Mana Cost: 10 
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Set ablaze the mana current, consuming the foes around you in an intense inferno and thawing any afflicted with Cryostasis. The fire ravenously burns, dealing more damage the lower your MP and leaving them burning based on the damage dealt, stacking to 2 and lasting 6 seconds.

Glacial Impact
Rank needed: 2
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 3
Type: Magical
Range: Infinite
Mana Cost: -15
Cooldown: 2.4 seconds

Still the flow of the mana stream, flash freezing your foes in place and drawing in 15 mana for yourself. Your foes remain in Cryostasis, reducing their Hit Chance and Damage dealt by 30% while they take 30% increased magic damage for 6 seconds.

Supernova
Rank needed: 3
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 3
Type: Magical
Range: Infinite
Mana Cost: 20
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Agitated mana bursts forth from you, engulfing your foes in a radiant supernova dealing more damage the lower your life force is.

Arcane Sigil
Rank needed: 5
Target: Self
Type: Magical
Mana Cost: 0 
Cooldown: 3 seconds

Inscribe an Arcane Sigil, significantly increasing your magical power. Your Arcane Sigil increases your Damage Dealt by 30% for 30 seconds, but the Overload of the spell increases your mana costs by 50% for 4 seconds and costs 40% of your current health.

Passives:

Thaumaturgy
Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive

Your mastery over the magical arts increases your Hit Chance and Crit Chance by 25%.

Aether Flow
Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive

Your ability to attune with the mana flow and influence it grants you 15% Haste.

Arcane Ascension 
Rank needed: 5
Type: Passive

Your Sigils can use Arcane Flux to empower you, shifting you between two forms. At rank 10, 10% INT.

Casting Sigil with Arcane Flux shifts you into Corporeal Ascension, giving you 250% END, 60% Crit Chance and a large rapid HoT based on your mana when you cast.

Casting Sigil in Corporeal Ascension shifts you into Astral Ascension, granting you rapid mana regen, 60% DoT damage, 20% Dodge, 5% Haste, and a small rapid HoT based on your mana when you cast.

Conclusion

Archmage is a deceptively simple class with a great amount of depth. Being a farming class, it was designed to play smoothly and be simple, with very few auras and interactions- but its scaling damage and heals and dual-mode play give it an incredible amount of customizability and build potential.

Being the first new class to release after the Blacksmithing updates, we wanted the class to be extremely receptive to enhancement traits and types. Because of that, the class has incredible synergy with different builds and different scenarios, allowing you to really tune it to your preferences.

The core gameplay of the class revolves around your two Ascension modes- Corporeal Ascension allows you to guarantee critical hits and be extremely tanky, but you’ll have to manage your mana more carefully. Astral Ascension allows you to have a constant influx of mana and drastically increases your damage over time, but leaves you considerably more vulnerable to damage.

Figuring out how to switch between modes or optimize one mode can greatly increase your power. Keeping up Arcane Sigil grants you a significant damage boost, at the cost of health and mana for casting it. The lower your health and mana, the more damage you deal. Finding a balance between your resources, your skill usage, and how actively you want to play the class is what Archmage is all about.