Sunken Temple

I did Sunken Temple last night with some people that knew where to go, but I have to say that without them it would have been insane; that place is like a maze, and since it's all stacked on top of itself, the map is useless. I got mad exp and some leet loot, though.

I'm almost 52 now (15% left, all rest exp), and the ST run financed my talent adjustment; now my PvE talent set is 95% complete -- just need two points in arctic reach. Yay for like 900 point criticals all over the place.

Here's my current talent build:

Arcane Talents (11 points)


Improved Arcane Missiles - 5/5 points
Gives you a 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Arcane Missiles.
These were really usefull earlier on against melee attackers; not so much any more, but still better than my alternatives for my first 5 points in arcane

Arcane Concentration - 5/5 points
Gives you a 10% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after any damage spell hits a target. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next damage spell by 100%.
Basicly an overal 10% mana use reduction over the course of battle

Evocation - 1/1 point
While channeling this spell, your mana regeneration is active and increased by 1500%. Lasts 8 seconds.
This is critical in massive battles like the divino rod in maurodon, since drinking is sometimes not an option, but you can get enough away to pull off the full channel


Frost Talents (31 points)


Improved Frostbolt - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.5 seconds.
20% more DPS

Ice Shards - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.
Those frequent criticals hurt all that much more

Improved Frost Nova - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova spell by 4 seconds.
Frost Nova is critical to the frost mage; you need to be able to use it as much as possible

Piercing Ice - 3/3 points
Increases the damage done by your frost spells by 6%.
Self explanatory

Cold Snap - 1/1 point
When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all of your cold spells.
An extra ice block, an extra ice barrier, an extra frost nova, and also a prereq for frost channelling

Frost Channeling - 3/3 points
Reduces the mana cost of your frost spells by 15%.
Nothing sucks more than running out of mana, so...

Shatter - 5/5 points
Increases the critical strike chance of your frost spells against frozen targets by 50%.
With frostbite, targets are freezing left and right; a 50% chance of double damage against a target likely to be frozen is awesome

Ice Block - 1/1 point
You become encased in a block of ice, protecting you from all physical attacks and spells for 10 seconds, but during that time you cannot attack, move, or cast spells.
It's not about avoiding the enemy's attacks; it's about an instant end to gouge, disease, DOT, fear, etc.

Frostbite - 5/5 points
Gives your chill effects a 15% chance to freeze the target for 5 seconds.
See above for what happens to frozen targets Note that this applies to my ice armor as well as my frostbolt, so yes, much freezing going on.

Ice Barrier - 1/1 point
Instantly shields you, absorbing 455 damage. Lasts 1 minute. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.
Good in emergencies, or just for increasing solo DPS by casting off frostbolts as fast as possible without running arround or interruption from gettting hit. Higher ranks in this skill are available from the mage trainer.

The rest of my talent build is:


Arctic Reach - 2/2 points
Increases the range of your Frostbolt spell and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 20%.
Longer range=more frostbolts off before they can reach me

Then the PvP talents...

Improved Blizzard - 3/3 points
Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed to 35% of normal. Lasts 8.50 seconds.
Blizzard is not a PvE skill. Too much aggro, not enough damage, too much channel interruption. Blizzard, with full Improved Blizzard is ownage, however, for large group PvP; slow your enemies down to an enfuriating 35% movement speed, curable only with a cure-all you get from a badlands quest, a dispel, or ice block. Easy pickings for your melee buddies.

Winter's Chill - 3/3 points
Increases the power of your chill effects by slowing the target's movement by an additional 10%.
As if 35% movement speed wasn't enfurating enough, now they're down to 25%

My last talent point will go either to improved frost ward, for mana gain from frost damage, or improved dampen magic for more damage prevention from all magical sources.