Now it might be because i haven't surfed the forums quite enough, but the consensus seems to be taking hold that Archmage is useful only for sp or getting that 5th level spell-like ability
What about DCs? With the spell mastery abilities, the save for my mass hold monster is now 38.
38
In epic VoN 1, not a single monster that wasn't immune saved the first time, and only 1 monster even managed to break before it was killed. Now if that isnt a massive insentive to take archmage i dont know what is.