Quick Links
Depending on the player,The Slormancer’s build diversity is either a dream or a nightmare. With so many different options for building your character, from Slorm Reapers to Legendary gear, it can be difficult to see how all the pieces fit into the puzzle, especially when you’re missing certain ones.
Luckily, for The Slormancer’s campaign and midgame grinds, you can really choose any weapon and skills you want and naturally build around those. The campaign is fairly easy, and the difficulty doesn’t ramp up until the endgame, so you have lots of time to experiment with what works best. If you’re looking for some jumping-off points for the Mage, you’ve come to the right place.
Slorm Reapers
Slorm Reapers are thecornerstone of almost any buildin The Slormancer, providing powerful, build-defining effects. While you may make a build centered around almost every single Slorm Reaper, there are a few that stand out from the rest, whether because they enable an extremely powerful build archetype, or are good for a number of different builds.
Adam Nostrus' Staff
This is the first Slorm Reaper you get, and itsuniversally strong effectwill suffice until you find a Slorm Reaper that more aligns with your desired build or playstyle. This staff evolves twice, gainingeffects thatactivate when opening and closing Breaches, which you’ll be doing a lot of.
The Staff also provides Raw Damage, Attack Speed, and Life on Hit, which are universally good stats thatmesh well with any skills or gear you use, so you really can’t go wrong with this staff. That said, it’s definitely ajack of all trades Slorm Reaper, so it’s not the absolute best-in-slot Reaper for any particular build, it just does well with most of them.
Epic Resounding Drum-Staff Of War
This is the final evolved form of the Drum-Staff of War, which provides a number of stats thatboost the effectiveness of projectiles. This Slorm Reaper givesPierce ChanceandFork Chancewith each level, which are also used by the Drum Effects that are cast each time you cast a projectile.
This Slorm Reaper works especially well withArcane Missile, grantingtons of additional projectilesthat thenPierce through enemies or Fork to others, covering the screen in missiles.
Staff Of Ferocious Affinity
The Staff of Ferocious Affinity allows you toscale your overall damage with your Max Mana, which this Slorm Reaper also provides. Increasing your Max Mana as high as it goes is a viable strategy for a number of different Mage builds, and this Slorm Reaper makes that strategy even better.
Staff Of The Manabender
The Staff of the Manabender works in the same way as the Staff of Ferocious Affinity, but forMana Regenerationinstead of Max Mana. Similarly, Mana Regeneration scales a few different skills and effects, so stacking it as high as possible is a solid game plan. The Staff of the Manabender helps do just that.
TheEnergy Overflowing Staffis another option to consider when building around Mana Regeneration. This Slorm Reaper turns Mana gained over your maximum intoextra hits of damageto nearby enemies.
Skills
Besides your Slorm Reaper, your Primary and Secondary skills are the most important parts of your build, along with the Support Skill provided by your Specialization choice. Luckily, every skill in The Slormancer is viable in some capacity, so which one you choose is entirely up to you.
In general, you should aim to have your Primary Skill be your main damage dealer, and your Secondary Skill be one that is built aroundamplifying or assisting your Primary Skill. Below, you can find some suggestions for strong skills to use.
Arcane Missile
Arcane Missile is the first skill you have access to, but it can be built in a number of different ways. A fun way to use Arcane Missiles is to getas many Remnant casts as possible, which are essentially weaker versions of the spell that are used at the same time you cast it, creatingmore projectiles.
This is done with theRemnant Copycatnode to let Arcane Missile cast a Remnant, then theArcanic Temponode to makemore projectiles with each cast. Then, you can combine theTemporal MissileandEmblematic Missilenodes toturn Arcane Missile into a Temporal spell, then gainadditional Remnants for each Non-Arcanic Emblem you have.
This pairs even better with the Phlegmatic Scholar node in theTime Warpskill mastery, giving you anadditional Emblem slot. With this, each cast of Arcane Missile will fire offfive additional Remnants, plus the extra projectiles created by Arcanic Tempo. If you pair this with theDrum-Staff of War Slorm Reaper, you’ll have more projectiles than you can count constantly flying at enemies.
Arcane Breach
Arcane Breach is a spell thatcreates an AoE at the target location, dealing damage over time to enemies inside. This skillpairs well withArcane Missile, creating an AoE that can hit more enemies than your Missiles sometimes can.
Suppose you upgrade it with theEvergrowing Portalmastery node. In that case, you canincrease the size of the Breach every time it’s hit with an Arcane Missile, or if you have theTemporal Missileupgrade, Missiles will insteadincrease Arcane Breach’s duration. You can combine this with theMulti-Breachesupgrade toreduce its cooldown, letting you stack multiple Arcane Breaches at once.
Orb Of The Arcane Master
Orb of the Arcane Masteris another skill that pairs well with Arcane Missile, adding evenmore projectiles to your arsenal. Several of its Mastery nodes canreduce the cooldown of the Orbaccording to your Mastery level with other Mage skills like Arcane Missile, Arcane Barrier, or Arcane Breach, making it a true showcase of your mastery as a Mage.
An interesting interaction comes when you combine theTemporal Missileupgrade with theOrb of the Temporal Master upgrade, which makes your Orb create additionalRemnant Orbsthat shoot out from it, covering the screen in additional projectiles.
Time Warp
Time Warp is theSupport Skill for the Phlegmatic Caster. This skillteleports you to the targeted location, providing a much-needed mobility option for the Mage. Also, teleporting willsummon a Temporal Clone at your starting point, which can then be used by other skills to cast Remnants or explode, to name a few.
Stats
While the stats you aim for depend entirely on your build or which areas you’re lacking, there are some stats that are almost universally strong for the Mage. As mentioned above,Max ManaandMana Regenerationare both useful for a lot of different builds, as many skills and Slorm Reapers scale your damage based on these stats.
These are also useful for casting spells in general, especially early on when the Mana cost of a skill is increased beyond what you’re capable of using due to upgrades. This makesMana Regeneration an important stat for early game builds.
Elemental Damageis another important stat for many Mage builds due to how many of its skills deal this type of damage in addition to Raw Damage. Elemental Damage is slightly more niche than Raw Damage, which means thatfewer enemies can effectively defend against it.
You canincrease Elemental Damage by upgrading nodes in the Ancestral Legacy board, as well as through normal methods like stats on gear or certain Mastery nodes.
