Goon Archmage Guide 1.1.5
Tips 1
2 Mag/1 Con for most of your levels, 1/1/1 when Mag is maxed, and periodically replace the 1 Con with 1 Wil if you are starting to have mana problems. How often you'll have to do that is a bit dependent on item drops. If you find a few things with + Wil or max mana, you can get away with almost no points in Wil.
There is no real right answer for which tree to focus on. The most basic build is the tri-beam archmage, which maxes lightining, manathrust, and flame. Manathrust and flame both start out as single target, but turn into beams at higher levels. This lets you constantly spam beam spells, which will get you through a surprising amount of the game. The rest of the build is just whatever gives you nice utility. Flameshock, disperse magic, the various shields, whatever fits best with your playstyle. This build has lower damage than more focused builds, but doesn't have to worry about immunities and doesn't need the advanced trees unlocked.
If you want to focus on a particular element, you'll need the advanced tree for that element (aether for arcane, wildfire for fire, etc.) unlocked. I think aether might start unlocked? I can't really remember. Fire is considered the best; it has a lot of versatility within the fire spells, does good damage, and lots of items boost fire damage. Arcane is a close runner-up; it shits out damage like no other, but doesn't do much else. Lightning is probably 3rd best; it does well overall but loses a lot against stun-immune enemies. Cold and earth have seen some relatively recent changes that I'm not too familiar with, but I think they're still considered to be a bit bad to specialize in.
Tips 2
For race, well, I'm quite biased towards Skeletons (I love that innate shield + heal) but the elves are good too, or human if you want an extra rune slot. I wouldn't play Skeleton if you aren't comfortable dealing with being stunned/confused since those conditions are QUITE deadly, especially to a fragile mage who will die easily when unable to cast spells.
It's been a while, but as a general tip Shield runes / shield spells in general are VERY important, the Aegis tree is pretty key. With the sustain that improves shield duration and 2 good shield runes you can set them both to autocast and always have shields up while exploring [Edit: may not be true anymore? sustain only gives +1 turn duration now]. First thing I focus on myself is mobility though, getting Phase Door and Teleport spells to rank 4/5 for the ability to conrolled phase / teleport, which are both incredibly powerful skills.
Beyond that, you generally want to choose a damage type to focus on and choose the appropriate trees and look for appropriate +damage gear to match. Fire/Wildfire is the 'classic' power build, letting you carpet the floor in burning death, although Lightning is more viable than it used to be and the new Arcane tree is quite good also. Can't really give opinions on Water / Earth, other than Earth was super shitty (relatively speaking) last time I checked, due to a crippling lack of area-affect damage.
Don't just blindly dump all your points in one tree though, particularly early you need to have some versatility. It's almost never a bad idea to pick up all 3 'beam' spells (Arcane, Fire, Lightning) that are on a 3-second cooldown so you can non-stop beam spam to kill hallways of enemies. Freeze is also a very solid utility spell, and I like the illuminate/blind spell also although sometimes finding the points to drop on it is hard.
For general playstyle, generally you'll be a blinking turret - autoexplore until you find enemies, pop a shield, unload damage until the enemies vanish. Whenever you feel the slightest bit threatened, blink backwards towards safety. Try to never be in view of enemies unless you have shield up and spells ready. You are very fragile and INCREDIBLY vulnerable to disables, so methods of clearing physical/mental debuffs are key. If you can't cast spells you are as good as dead, so especially early game when +damage gear is rare and shitty you want to focus on stun/confuse resists.
e: Oh and the 'Meta' tree is fairly strong for any build, and can be quite useful especially if you don't want to dedicate yourself to a tree straight off at level 10. The 1st spell can dispel buffs on enemies, which cannot be understated because there are a TON of powerful buffs / sustains that you can completely remove that will completely neuter certain enemies. Spell Shaping is amazing, completely nullifying enemy resists on enemies. Quicken spells gives you up to *30%* cooldown reduction on your spells, which is obviously incredible, especially lategame when you've got the mana to crank those spells out. The last one (Metaflow) straight up resets the cooldown on some of your spells (runes included), which can be great when you have the mana to use it much like Quicken. Overall an excellent tree if you can fit it into your build, but not mandatory.
