The linchpin of the build is combining Glyph of Dominion's Attuned Shapes and Evoker of Elements. By scaling our maximum mana value (or more specifically, our total missing mana value), our Glyph creates its Fire Aura stacks almost immediately; so fast in fact that we can spam Glyph as our Mainskill. It has defensive benefits as well while we're standing in it, so even when we need to stop casting to dodge attacks we want to be inside one. Thankfully Doom Scribe 2/4 gives our Glyph a minimum duration so we're never caught with our metaphorical pants down.
Wrongwarp/Teleport are our defensive engine. Just by grabbing cooldown recovery wherever we can (including Ancient Inscriptions 8/10 with some PrefixIntelligence), we are using Teleport a lot, and reaping the rewards with its skill tree bonuses and Wrongwarp's Timelock. As if this weren't good enough already, playing around missing mana opens up a very specific but powerful ward generator to us: PrefixExperimental Ward Gained on Traversal, meaning that we want to be using Teleport. all. the. time. Our Ward gain will scale with both max. Mana and Cooldown. Our Flame Ward and Focus also benefit from reduced cooldowns of course.
Spamming these two costly skills leaves a hole in our gameplan: we need a mana source, and relying on passive mana regen sources won't cut it. While there's a different approach that I'll elaborate on in the Skills section, here we're using Focus, or rather Null Profusion. Don't stick around to channel it, just press it as an instant spell when you dip below 0 mana. By the time we've spent our mana down to that point again, it should be off cooldown. This is the tricky part of the build; at some stages of gear progression you may not be able to outright spam your Glyph of Dominion, and have to practice how many you can use between each Focus. The more PrefixMana and SuffixIncreased Cooldown Recovery Speed you find, the smoother it gets.
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Our other skill slots are less important to make the build work, but here's some other things that happen under the hood.
- Flame Ward is mandatory on any mage that has the slots, and even more for us because we get Eye of Flame. If you convert Fire Aura to a different element, do it here, not on the Passive Tree.
- Elemental Nova is by no means required nor the focus of the build, but we get it with Evoker of Elements anyway, so we make the best of it.
- Keep Runic Invocation on your hotbar to reap the benefits of certain Passive Tree nodes that depend on generating runes, even if you don't put skillpoints in it. We don't want to self-cast Elemental Nova anyway.
Tldr on gameplay:
You permanently want to be on low mana. the exact number varies based on your gear but try to be below 20% as a rule of thumb.
Spam Teleport off cooldown, and use Glyph of Dominion as much as possible. With low gear your cast speed is too high to allow the Glyph to reach its max-size without replacing it, so you have to tap it intermittently and can't just hold down the button.
When you dip into negative mana, tap Focus and repeat the above again. With low gear its cooldown might feel too long; you may have to practice using the "correct" amount of Glyph of Dominion between each Focus.
Stand near enemies. Use Flame Ward frequently to protect yourself. If you have the Reowyn's Frostguard setup (see explanation below), keep that buff up too.
