Well since I have acquired a certain legendary wand I have been around the 1400 rating and some players asked me to post this build, so here I am. This is the typical mage build I run. Ferocious Feline Cat, erm Dwarf Mage Main damage dealing mage in the build, depending on the particular build i have at any given moment ( it tends to fluctuate with certain slots ) i load alot more SQUEAMISH in the form of 1-2 additional SENSATE rings, for example to free up a slot for SUPER STOUTNESS ( duck x2 ) The squeamish works very well because none of the cards are dealing dmg "directly" to the character - e.g. arcane burst is targeting the square "next to them" so you can still hit them with it. Good to know! Yes, Blind Rage is bad on this mage, but the "discard blocks" and move first-edness of warcry is great ( and unexpected ) plus the card drawing ( VERY important ) of dwarven battle cry against pesky elf warriors. typically this build has so much force cannon/gusts stuff like enemy dwarves aren't a huge issue. Blue Destruction Voltstaff Sarigo's Rod Blasting Amulet Ixtli Amulet Sensate's Ring Firehide Robes Greenguard Boots Advanced Ferocity Advanced Levitation Urbarazuki Dwarf Mage slapped some freeze on him for extra control ( encumber 3 is the new stacked encumber 2? ) staff of chask because punishing bolt is still OP depsite the range nerf - after all the only way these dwarves lose is when they get bum rushed! You can again see the pattern of this being a pretty much catch-all build. Sub-Zero Staff Staff Of Chask Blasting Amulet Sarigo's Rod Rantic's Orb Of Inner Fire Vermillion Pendant Firehide Robes Ulalia's Boots Untrained Toughness Supber Electromancy Dawidrug Dwarf Priest this guy makes the mages do ridiculous damage with his dmg boosting cards UNHOLY WELLSPRING and SAVAGE CURSE, and for good measure has a crapton of DEMONIC POWER so they can keep blasting away with those arcane bursts. demonic arcane bursts the purging paladins are to deal with nimbus, martyr, elven manuvers, mass frenzy, freeze, or generally all other game-ending status effects. parrying buckler just lets this guy troll the crap out of warriors and block them. goat boots to trait cycle to better cards. Axe Of The Dark Soul Axe Of The Dark Soul Parrying Buckler Purging Pauldrons Goat Boots Skull Of Savage Iljin Demon Charm Of The Seventh Circle Demon Charm Of The Seventh Circle Raging Battler Novice Ablution potential tweaks I often play with : swapping out exact staves, eg. staff of firegod for x2 Fireball draws usually with the Molten Pyromancy trait and run a firemage ; run Displacing Staff instead of voltstaff with an extra item ; i mess around alout with the dwarf racial traits, run duck sometimes ; run x2 advanced ferocity for extra dwarf drawing ; adding team runs via Sliding Boots ; sometimes i run Ekkerg's Amulet. Things i typically dont like or dont like to run alot of are FIRESTORM, VOLCANO. firestorm i usually limit to one draw ; its for finishing em off mostly. for example arcane aura on the the second mage's boots is probably better as a team run slot but for personal reasons i just like to keep the dmg boost on. sometimes swap for my Rockshard Robe if i am feeling terrain-ish. that is pretty much it as you can see the priest loads draws and dmg boosts onto the mages who wreck shop on melee characters with all of their force push and slide + knives. in the event of enemy mages arcane burst them when in cover or get an illusory barrier - ridiculous THREE WHOLE ROUNDS of them not being able to hit you while you dominate the VP zones/snipe their other units while their wizard stares at your wall. the trick to playing wizards is to know when NOT to play your movement cards, and when to charge in. obviously the VP system makes you play a dangerous balancing game with these builds that are basically designed to give you a slow, methodical lead over your opponet in most situations rather than a showy build. the trick to the game is to use your head - for example i have super rare robes but what is the point of running arcane shell when resistant hide is literally -the- best armor in the game? as you can see i do have SOME trait cycling on my first wiz but the second barely runs a single ferocity. i am thinking of moving to 100 percent burst dam and running squeamish on both wizards - i find the other wizard traits unacceptably bad. even like Brain Burn sucks too much to me to seriously consider playing it, tho i will sometimes run Shifting Bangle
