Leveling this build will be an absolute breeze as we pretty much get to play our main skill from as early as ~Level 25. As soon as we unlock Glacier, we will be using it to Level until we can Unlock Meteor and put 3 points in Aftermath 3/3 and 1 point into Meteor Shower 1/3. Once you unlock those, we will simply be alternating between casting Meteor and utilizing both Mana Strike & Focus to replenish our Mana. Early on, you will struggle for Mana especially once you pick up Twin Meteors 1/1. This is why it is highly important to find any PrefixMana & PrefixMana Regeneration rolls you can as it also synergizes well with Mana Shell 5/8 & Lost Knowledge 5/5.
If you want an in-depth explination of how to Level this, id recommend watching the Video Guide!
Step by Step guide at the bottom.
There is also a Build Variant above this section that has a link to the Skill Trees of Glacier & Mana Strike if you would like an interactive one with sliders.
Important: We will be leveling as a Sorcerer which loves PrefixMana. You want to heavily prioirtize putting PrefixMana on every item you can. The Sorcerer Passive gives us 1% More Damage per 2 Mana Cost on your skill. Due to this we want to get Meteor's Twin Meteors 1/1 ASAP and if you don't have much Mana, it will feel a bit clunky. You can use any Weapon you want but a Birch Wand gives a ridicilous amount of PrefixMana for it only requiring Level 20 to equip.
The other Very Important stat will be PrefixMana Regeneration. The more you have the easier it will be to sustain Meteor's casts and the less Mana Strikes & Focus you will have to do.
Level 1-20
To start our journey as a Mana Stacker, we need to unlock Meteor. This just requires us to progress through the story up until the point where you get to choose a Mastery and become a Sorcerer. Once we unlock Meteor, we will ignore it until Level 20 and can Specialize into it as Meteor really needs 1 point in Meteor Shower 1/3 at a minimum to feel good.
To get us there, we will be using Glacier to level as it is pretty much.... just Cold Meteor. Glacier is a 3 part ability that will do 3 increasingly larger Ice Spikes with the 3rd one doing over 1/2 the Total Damage. Glacier is unlocked at 5 Passive Points at ~Level 6. Until then, Specialize into Fireball and pick up 2 points of Conflagration 2/5. This will be your Single Target damage while an Unspecialized Elemental Nova will be your AoE. Early Mage leveling is painful until you unlock Glacier and this is simply the best we can do. Once you are Level 6, Unspecialize out of Fireball and Specialize into Glacier.
Glacier will be our main DPS all the way until we get Meteor and 1 point into Meteor Shower 1/3. Glacier will do so much damage that it should just 1-shot all packs of monsters for the most part. It will have a very high Mana cost which is why we will pair it up with Mana Strike. Your whole playstyle up until ~Level 25 is going to be using 1-2 Glacier followed by Mana Strike to regain your Mana. Try to group up packs as much as you can and ignore any stragglers as it isint worth the Mana to kill them. Until Level 8 use an Unspecialized Mana Strike and then Specialize into it with your 2nd Slot.
At Level 7 you will unlock Flame Ward which will be your main defensive layer for now. Flame Ward is so strong that you can facetank all boss abilities for most of the Campaign with it, make sure you are using it as much as you can. Finally, at Level 9 you will unlock Teleport and from here you are off to the races being able to speed through the game at a very quick pace.
Important - Glacier is a 3-part hit ability with the big final hit being over 50% of the DPS. With us focusing on increasing the 3rd hit's damage on its Passive Tree, you need to make sure it is hitting bosses. It has a very large hitbox which will make that easy but, you can miss if you are too close to a boss.
As for the Passive Tree of Glacier, start by putting 2 points into Breaking Point 2/4, then 2 points into Greater Destruction 2/4, then 4 points into Morditas' Bane 4/4. By this point you will be ready to swap to Meteor and wount need to worry about it anymore.
For the Mana Strike Passive Tree, put 3 points into Arcanist's Blade 3/3 , then 4 into Swift Sap 4/4, 2 into Reclamation 2/3 and 4 into Mana Drain 4/4.
There is also a Build Variant above this section that has a link to the Skill Trees of Glacier & Mana Strike if you would like an interactive one with sliders.
Levels 20-Endgame
You will unlock Meteor at ~Level 15, ignore it until Level 20 when you can Specialize into it. Once Specialized, Ignore Meteor and keep playing Glacier until you have both 3 points in Aftermath 3/3 and At Least 1 point in Meteor Shower 1/3. While Meteor does more DPS than Glacier, due to its delay before the Hit and its lack of good AoE, Glacier will just be faster to level with. Meteor Shower 1/3 really helps with this as each point will give us 1 additional free Meteor with no additional Mana cost attached to it unlike Twin Meteors 1/1.
Important - Once you swapped to Meteor, make sure you keep upgrading your Weapon. Meteor has a 900% Effectiveness of Added Damage meaning the +Spell Damage Implicit on your Weapons is a much bigger deal that any sort of damage rolls your Weapon might have such as PrefixElemental Damage or PrefixSpell Damage.
Once you have Meteor Shower 1/3, Unspecialize out of Glacier and Specialize into Focus. Focus is going to be crutial to you being able to sustain Meteor's Mana costs as with a low Mana pool we wount be able to do too many before going OOM. With Focus we are going to be picking up Desperate Meditation 1/1, Null Profusion 1/1 & Revelation 2/4. With all 3 of these, channeling Focus for at least 1 second will pretty much top you back up. Due to the nature of Desperate Meditation 1/1 & Null Profusion 1/1, you want to get to Negative Mana before actually casting Focus to benefit from the burst of Mana.
Another important node to keep in mind is going to be Aftermath 3/3 which Refunds you 16% of Meteor's Mana cost per second up to 48%. Due to this, you are going to not want to spam Meteor and in stead just only using 1-2 Meteors per pack. Try to attack directly into the middle of a pack and if 1-2 random straggler mobs live, just ignore them and move on to the next pack. You don't need to wait the full 3 seconds but even just delaying your casts and only doing 1 per pack of monsters will make a massive difference to your Mana economy.
Important note on Focus usage - Due to how powerful Null Profusion 1/1 & Null Infusion 4/4 are, you want to wait for your Mana to be Negative before pressing it. This will give you significantly more Mana at a quicker rate. The best way to achieve this is to just keep using Meteor as normal until your Mana gets low. Once your Mana is low, keep using Meteor to tank your Mana into the Negative. Your Mana Recovery will quickly bring you back out of Negative Mana if you only dipped into it by something low such as 20-30. You then want to immideatly use Meteor to go down to -100 or lower Mana, then use Focus. You don't have to wait and can just use it when you are at -20 to -30 but, it might be a bit hard to time it thus, it will be easier to really tank your mana to -50+ to make sure you dont start your Focus at positive Mana.
TLDR:
- Spam Meteor
- Once at Low Mana, use Meteor to go into Negative Mana
- Cast Focus only when you have Negative Mana
- Be careful to not accidentally let your Mana go Positive before you use Focus. To prevent this, let your Mana go back into the Positive, then use 1 Meteor at ~20-30 Mana to tank it down to -100 Mana. If you are good with your timing you wount need to do this but, this will be the guaranteed way to never accidentally start Focus at positive Mana.
Outside of getting used to using Meteor & Focus together, nothing else will really change until Endgame. Once you feel comfortable with the rotation and dont need Mana Strike at all, Unspecialize out of it and Specialize into Flame Ward as this will give you a lot of DPS especially due to Through Flames 5/5. At Level 35 Specialize into either Flame Ward if you are still using Mana Strike or into Teleport if not. Finally, at Level 50 Specialize into Arcane Ascendance and drop Mana Strike.
You can keep Mana Strike if you are somehow still having Mana issues but you shouldnt with proper play, if that is the case though, keep Mana Strike until you get Archmage 5/5 at which point you should 100% Specialize out to Arcane Ascendance.
As for Arcane Ascendance, ignore it until you have picked up both Acuity 1/1 & Tranquility 3/3. Once you have both, Arcane Ascendance will become a single target Nuke, greatly reducing Meteor's Mana cost and greatly increasing your Cast Speed and Damage allowing you to dump your Mana very quickly before using Focus again. This should ideally only be used on Bosses as Arcane Ascendance does root you in place. You can still Teleport while rooted and, simply recasting Arcane Ascendance will end it early, allowing you to move again.
From this point, just keep following the Passive Trees & have fun!
Step by Step Guide
- Use Fireball for Single Target & Elemental Nova for AoE. At Level 4, Specialize into Fireball and pick up 2 points in Conflagration 2/5.
- Once you unlock Glacier, Unspecialize out of Fireball and Specialize into Glacier. Pick up 2 points in Breaking Point 2/4 then 2 in Greater Destruction 2/4 followed by 4 points in Morditas' Bane 4/4. Use Mana Strike to gain your Mana back.
- At Level 7 start using Flame Ward as an amazing defensive and at Level 9 start using Teleport.
- At Level 8, Specialize into Mana Strike in your 2nd Slot picking up 3 points in Arcanist's Blade 3/3, then 4 in Swift Sap 4/4, 2 in Reclamation 2/3 & Mana Drain 4/4.
- At Level 20, Specialize into Meteor. Follow the Skill Tree for it in the Skills Section and ignre it until At Least 1 point in Meteor Shower 1/3. Once you have Meteor Shower 1/3, Unspecialize out of Glacier and Specialize into Focus. Follow the Information right above this Step by Step Guide to utilie Meteor & Focus correctly. Unspecialize out of Mana Strike once you are comfortable and arent using it anymore and Specialize into Flame Ward.
- At Level 35, Specialize into Flame Ward if you are still using Mana Strike or into Teleport if you arent. Follow the Passive Trees in the Skill Section of the guide.
- At Level 50, Specialize into Arcane Ascendance and use it as a Single Target Nuke on Bosses with Meteor.
- Blast everything and have fun in Monoliths!