Question about Archmage - is bonus damage lost, in real time, upon running out of mana?
Archmage reads:
"Supported Skills gain Added Lightning Damage equal to (70-127)% of Mana Cost, if Mana Cost is not higher than the maximum you could spend"
At a glance, one might think of this as "The more mana you spend, the more damage is added." But I've been having some confusing results, which made me read this more carefully and wonder - after casting, do I need to still have the mana available, at the time the damage is dealt, in order to benefit from the bonus damage?
This would be very important when casting a spell which doesn't deal its damage immediately. I'll describe the scenario with Stormbind, which is what I'm using:
- I channel Stormbind, placing runes, until I've spent almost all my mana.
- I now use my little bit of remaining mana to detonate the runes with Runeblast.
- At this moment, I no longer have enough mana to cast Stormbind again.
Because of 3, does this detonation (at 2) NOT benefit from Archmage's bonus damage?
It would actually make sense, given the description of Archmage. The mana cost is higher than the maximum I could spend, at that time. But, it would also kind of suck; it would mean that in order to benefit from Archmage, we need to ensure our mana doesn't stay below the cost of the skill for too long, because any hits that occur while we're low on mana are going to be very weak.
Does anyone have any insight into this?
Further note about my specific situation:
I'm trying to live the dream of using Indigon and Archmage. I channel Stormbind, and the cost quickly becomes unmanageable (because of Indigon's effect, mana cost reaches >7000 after 1 second); this is as expected.
Having spent so much mana, I was hoping to combine Archmage's and Indigon's damage bonuses to great effect - however, it feels very inconsistent damage-wise, and I fear it may be because at the time I detonate the runes, I usually don't have the 7000 mana that would be required to cast Stormbind again at that moment.
Posted Mar 21, 2020, 12:11 AM UTC
Yes.
Archmage does not snapshot.
If the skill deals damage and you don't have the mana as high as the mana cost -> no bonus damage.
Devs said this is especially to counter Indigon abuse.
This is only half true. The spell cost calculates based on your UNRESERVED manapool, whether or not that mana is empty or not doesn't matter at all. u/Sandbagging
so let's say you have an indigon equipped, your total unreserved mana pool is 5000 as soon as your spell manacost exceeds the 5000 unreserved mana archmage doesn't apply it's damage bonus anymore. Only once you go back down below that it applys it's damage bonus again.
Really? Ok, that's much better; still need to be careful, but the window of possibility is wider. Thanks!
Setharial's explanation was pretty good and it probably doesn't matter for your build, but just for the sake of completion: Archmage bases its changed mana cost on your unreserved mana, but it doesn't care about what you use to pay it.
It will check the unreserved maximum of whatever resource is used to pay it, so if you use Eldritch Battery, it counts both your mana and ES, and if you use Blood Magic, it counts your life (probably not a great idea to use BM with a skill that ends up having mana costs in the thousands, but theoretically it's possible).
Damn. I missed it.
Ah well; thanks for your help!