Hoeth + Shadow is by far the most favoured combo for Archmages when you peruse the Ulthuan forums. That and book of Ashur for players who want to offer their mage some protection.
Where it worked particularly well against me was in teaming it with what I saw as a nice big swathe of free points. I took it hook, line and sinker.
So are we going to see this type of combo in your HEs?
Most likely I will be trying it out this week at 2400pts during a club game - play testing for Skitterleap. Although I think Lore of Life also has a lot to offer it. The problem is if you take book of Hoeth it makes the mage completely unprotected as is very much a one shot kind of deal.