Id start with the statement that I picked AW for my solo run, but right now I think its possible to solo as a non-AW mage (will be somewhat more challenging I suppose). I did not abuse broken shimmering shield, and used 'mage' mode for the majority of the fights in the game. I did abuse some other broken (not bugged, but broken by design) spells though.
They are:
1) Force field. Its combo with taunt is but one of many ways to abuse it. It has 30 sec duration and 30 sec cooldown. So you can:
a) get +mana regen gear and forcefield yourself. If you are regenerating more than 40 mana per 30 sec you have a positive net. You dont have to bother with mana pots this way (although its annoying and I rarely use that).
forcefield yourself and cast a dot spell on enemy. I find Virulent walking bomb + forcefield combo just ridiculous. Cast it on an enemy, forcefield yourself, watch the enemies surround you and go boom. If the damage is not enough cast an affliction hex on the target (although both explosion damage and target dot are equal to 150+1.5*spellpower, so with maxed magic and +30% spirit damage gear you wont have any problems clearing trash throughout the game).. You can also handle bosses this way, just spam dot spells like bomb, prison and others, but it will take some time (although they cant counter it in any way, with the exception of a few that have dispel).c) forcefield yourself and wait till your other emba abilities recharge
2) Mana clash. There are more monsters with mana than you might expect, and mages are the most dangerous opponents in the game. Want to kill them instantly? no problem.
Next 3 spells arent that broken themselves, but some combos with them are just ridiculous:
1)Misdirection Hex. Cast on a melee boss, attack him without worrying about being hit, forcefield yourself when it wears off, repeat. Not really needed most of the time, still this is 100% win strategy.
2)Vulnerability Hex: all resistances are lowered by 30+0.3*spellpower
3)Affliction Hex: all resistances are lowered by 20+0.2*spellpower (aoe). Stacks with vulnerability hex.
Things that are largely underestimated: staff damage.
I suppose that staff damage = base staff damage + 0.3*spellpower. Lets ignore base damage for our calculations, since its not impressive. With staff mastery it becomes 0.4*spellpower. If you get a staff with elemental damage you can benefit from +30& bonus from gear. So its 0.52*spellpower. Its also affected by vulnerability and affliction hexes. I have a feeling that a minimal resistance value is -100% because the damage would be greater otherwise. Assuming Im right, with these hexes your damage is now 1.04*spellpower. Its posiible to have about 150 spellpower @ lvl 20, because of spell might, spell wisp and craploads of gear that increase it. So youll be dealing about 150 damage per hit. Not bad, and its ranged and cant be resisted or dodged by any means.
Enough for now, more thoughts later.
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