We continue with our Soul guides for the upcoming MMORPG RIFT, from Trion Worlds. Today, we take a look at the Archon Soul.
Who would play an Archon?
Any player who enjoys providing support at the cost of their own DPS. If you are looking to top damage meters and be uber-awesome with huge crits, the Archon (or at least Archon as a main soul) is likely not for you. The Archon provides all individuals around them with buffs that increase their stats, casting speed and more. This comes at the expense of your own stats, which get diminished. However, you can also increase your stats once again by using certain skills that only work on the Archon.
Abilities & Class Defining Skills
As we said already, the Archon is the mage Soul that buffs the entire party around them. There are several 5 minutes auras at your disposal and the entire tree is pretty much devoted to decreasing mana cost and cast times and increasing damage by x% depending on the amount of Auras you have active. Needless to say, you don’t go half way into Archon. You either take 5 points max for the 1st Aura and the + Fire damage or go all the way to make use of the Auras.
As we also commented earlier, each Aura weakens you by “x” of each stat. For example, Shared Vigor reduces the Mage’s Endurance to increase the group’s Endurance by the same amount. Luckily for the Mage, another ability “Searing Vitality”, a fire-based DoT, can stack on a target and increase the Mage’s Endurance by “x” (depending on rank, etc). Like this example, all the other auras have a “compensating” ability that the mage can use to increase his/her own stat.
What does this mean for you as the player? You will be, as full Archon, basically pumping out those Auras every 5 minutes and in between casting those auras, you will be making sure that you are re-buffing yourself with these “compensating” abilities so that you are not incredibly weakened.
Here’s a list of the Aura with the corresponding “compensating” ability. Please note that the amount increased or decreased of the stats are corresponding to level 1, as shown on Rift Soul Calculators:
Aura: Shared Vigor -10 Endurance for the mage +5 for the group
Comp. Ability: Searing Vitality – Increases Mage’s Endurance by 1 per stack, up to 5 stacks
Aura: Tempered Armor – Reduces Mage’s Armor by 158, increases group’s armor by 158
Comp. Ability: Ashen’s Defense: Drains enemy defenses and increases Mage’s Armor by 93
Aura: Arcane Aegis – Reduces Mage’s Resistance by 20, increases group’s resistances by 20
Comp. Ability: Crumbling Resistance: Increases Mage’s Resistances by 15
Aura: Vitality of Stone – Reduces Mage’s Strength, Wisdom, Dexterity and Intelligence by 15, increases group’s same stats by 10
Comp. Ability: Pillaging Stone – Increases Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom and Intelligence by 1 per stack, maximum of 5 stacks.
Aura: Burning Purpose – Reduces Mage’s Casting and Melee speed by 10%, increases Group’s casting/melee speed by 10%
Comp. Ability: Lingering Dust: Increases Mage’s casting/melee ability by 10%
There are other abilities deep in the root part of the tree that will provide even more casting time decrease or more spell power to the group, but are abilities, not auras.
As you can see, most of what you’ll be doing is ensuring that you have all the auras up and you are firing off the compensating abilities to remain up to par to pump some DPS in the mean time.
Soloing
Soloing for me was quite tough because the Archon does not put out a ridiculous amount of DPS and if you don’t pare it with Chloromancer for heals, you are but a buffing machine with no heals, and no DPS. I have to be honest though: I didn’t try soloing too much with the Archon as I found the Chloromancer to be a lot easier and faster to level with. I saw on the forums people saying they had no problems soloing as Archon but I will say that in my opinion it’s likely one of the hardest Mage Souls to level with.
How much DPS does the Archon pump?
Average. It all depends here how deep you go into Archon and what you are accompanying Souls are. You can be a full buff/heal bot with Chloro/Archon, meaning your DPS will likely be lacking, or you can do Full Archon with the rest in Pyromancer and you might be a potent machine. Then again, it would be odd if I could go full Archon, have some amazing auras to buff my party AND on top of that pump tons of DPS. Might be a bit OP.
Which souls to partner with Archon?
I haven’t tested this area much but a Chloro/Archon will likely be the ultimate buff/off heal support Mage combination. Together with the CC of a Dominator, you would be the epitome of team player, bringing off heals, CC and Buffs to your raid, but suffering likely in DPS and questing ability. Or you could try, full Archon with the rest in Pyromancer and pew pew away with the increase in Fire Damage.
Keep in mind, no matter which soul you take, that as we discussed, a good chunk of your rotation will be devoted to Auras and compensating abilities, so there might not be too much time to fire those Pyromancer nukes, or Chloro heals in between.
Conclusion:
The Archon is an extremely fun class to play if you are the support type of player. Maybe you played a Shaman in World of Warcraft and enjoyed being the buffer with the Totems, or a Tinkerer Engineer or healer/buffer in Warhammer Online. You can put out damage but the main purpose of this soul is to buff and support your party and raid members. That, you will do extremely well. Just imagine +x to all stats, + y to Attack/Spell Power and +10% casting speed to all your friends, family and strangers. That’s what you will be doing. Does it help? TONS!
If you are looking to pump out max DPS numbers and don’t like buffing your friends, this Soul is not for you, or at least not as a main soul.
