Build:Warmage

Playstyle
This is truely one of the most flexible builds in the game. You can play as a pure caster, as a two handed warrior, or anything in between. And it is the in between part where this build truely shines. Able to combine the raw magical talent of the Rune Sage, the replenishing effects of Bloodlust, elemental buff from Lockwell's Revelation and the improved boons from Shamanic Resonance into a battlemage that can truely do it all.

Exactly how you play the Warmage is up to you. But if you play her well, she can take a lot of punishment while dishing out enough damage of different elements to deal with any foe in the game effectively.

Skills
 Runic Sage  The Rune Sage is the core of this build. It's flexibility is astonishing and the fact that the Great Runic Blade acts as a Lexicon means you can play as a two handed warrior without having to give up the extra benefits of the Runic Prefix. Whatever you do, do not use Internalized Lexicon with this build!

 Hex Mage  The Hex Mage is a powerfull spellcaster in it's own right. In this build however, we mainly want it for the passives. Bloodlust will allow us to replenish burnt health, mana and stemina for every kill. And as a hybrid class, we will be burning through a lot of all three of these resources. This also synergizes well with Lockwell's Revelation, as it allows you to run around without sleeping. Lockwell's Revelation will allow us to do do up to 30% extra elemental damage when (very) tired. This is huge, as all three of the elements we use will be buffed by this. I do recommend getting Jinx, Torment and Rupture. As the hexes can increase the damage by your other spells and your Great Runic Blade by quite a bit. And Torment and Rupture can be awesome finishers. Mainly usefull if you want to switch it up and play as a pure mage for a while, or while you are working your way towards the required gear.

 Cabal Hermit  The Cabal Hermit has some really interesting spells in its arsenal. It has the only resource-less Sigil, the only Combat Summon and some other nice utility spells. But the reason it is almost mandatory in most builds, is it's breakthrough Shamanic Resonance. As it increases the effectiveness of all boons by half. And since we use three different elemental damage types, we benefit from three boons. So the impact of this passive is huge on this build.

 Other  There are several skills from other skill trees that can be really usefull for this build. Particularly Brace from the Warrior Monk and Mana Ward from the Philosopher and Pommel Counter. These three defensive skills can get you out of some tricky situations. The discipline boon doesn't really do anything for you, as you don't do any physical damage (Yes I know the Blacksmith's Vintage Hammer is up there, I'm getting to that in the next section. Patience!), but brace is still a free block.

If you are more offensively inclined, you might consider taking along some of the Hex Mage's skills instead of these defensive options. Or perhaps Moment of Truth if you own The Three Brothers DLC. In which case would prefer getting Brains, for a 15% passive increase to all your damage output.

Gear
 Weapons  So, the Blacksmith's Vintage Hammer! Probably the only build out there that uses this weapon. It does almost no damage, but decent impact damage. What it does do, is apply 45% Elemental Vulnerability buildup. Meaning that after four hits, your enemy with will be effected by Elemental Vulnerability which will increase all elemental damage against them by 25%. This is great for us, as we deal three types of elemental damage and no physical damage. After applying Elemental Vulnerability, we will cast Rune: Shim - Rune: Egoth to summon a Runic Blade. Then Rune: Shim - Rune: Egoth again to summon a Great Runic Blade. This blade will deal awesome damage and some  damage because of the Greater Decay Imbue applied by Runic Prefix. You could obviously replace the Blacksmith's Vintage Hammer with the Mace of Seasons. But I dislike the look of it and the increased physical damage hardly matters.

The lexicon of choice is the Light Mender's Lexicon. It add's +5% and  damage.

 Armor  The gear for this build is quite specific. Each piece of armor and their specific enchantments adds something to this build. In total your armor will grant: +15% damage +20% damage +20% damage +29% Movement Speed And because you are wearing medium to heavy armor, you get some solid defensive stats aswell.

This is achieved by adding the following enchantment to your gear: Tenebrous Helm - enchanted with Order of Discipline Runic Armor - enchanted with Chaos and Creativity Black Plate Boots - enchanted with Guidance of Wind

These enchantments will allow you to have the elemental bonuses of a mage, the movement speed of an archer and the heavy armor of a warrior.

 Backpack  There are several good choices of backpack. I prefer the Light Mender's Backpack for the +10% damage. But depending on your playstyle you might go for Brass-Wolf Backpack, Boozu Hide Backpack or even Zhorn's Hunting Backpack.

 Total gear stats  +20% damage +35% damage +20% damage +29% Movement Speed

 Mana management  Because the Warmage is a hybrid build, that relies quite heavily on spells. Mana management can be a challange. You get 25% mana reduction from your gear and +40 mana from Well of Mana. Being Tired or Very Tired gives you 0.2 or 0.3 mana per second respectively. These are solid bonuses, but to be effective we need a lot more. That's why I recommend the following:


 * Get between 80 and 120 mana from a leyline. Practice with lower amounts of mana before increasing it. You should find a balance between using mana and stemina to keep yourself alive and kill your foes.
 * Maintain a supply of Turmmip Potage. Making sure you maintain that level 3 Mana Ratio Recovery They can be easily cooked using four Turmmips, which can be bought at any alchemist and/or chef.
 * Maintain a supply of Astral Potion. Easily crafted combining water with a Turmmip and a Star Mushroom. You might even consider putting these on your hot bar.
 * Drink Gaberry Wine before big fights. This will reduce the mana cost of your spells by 20%. Easily bought and/or looted.
 * Use the Mage Tent for a 15% mana cost reduction. Even just repairing and/or guarding will give you this buff. So no need to give up your Lockwell's Revelation buff.
 * Several quest rewards can help you with your mana. The Holy Mission of Elatt can reduce your mana cost by 15%. The Blue Chamber Collective can give you an extra 25 mana. And The Heroic Kingdom of Levant can increase all damage you do by 15%. Which means you have to cast fewer spells. The only really bad choice of faction, is Sorobor Academy, as the rewards really offer no benefits for this build.

Combos
Try to maintain a Tired or even Very Tired status. Giving you passive mana recovery and activating Lockwell's Revelation. Before combat, make sure you have Runic Protection on to buff your defensive stats, and allow you to cast Runic Heal if you need to. Also get your Runic Lantern up so you can throw out a Runic Lightning whenever you want. After that be sure to at least get the Mist Boon, Blessed Boon and Possessed Boon up. As these are the three elements you will be damaging enemies with. Also use the boon of whatever element the enemy is going to be attacking you with for the increased defense.

Putting down Runic Traps and spamming your Runic Lightning, with the occasional Mana Push to keep the enemy at arm's length. Standard practice for a Rune Sage. If you are preparing for a particularly tough fight, you can apply some Hexes with Jinx before engaging. Considering you deal three types of damage its not worth bringing a dedicated hex, but applying them before combat doesn't cost you anything but time and a little mana. So go for it if you have the patience.

Destabilize your foe with a Mana Push, and hit it three times with the Blacksmith's Vintage Hammer to apply Elemental Vulnerability. After this you can summon a Great Runic Blade to turn yourself into a fearsom two handed warrior. The Great Runic Blade acts as a Lexicon, allowing you to seamlessly weave Runic Traps, Runic Lightning and blade swings together. Making you an extremely flexible weapon of war.