Wolken3156

However, the engagement limit of your frontline fighters will limit you much harder against the masses of mobs in PotD. Battles become significantly harder if you can not engage every enemy in melee, because then they will run straight for your squishies if you aren't careful. Your fighter can engage up to 5 enemies at the same time? Well, duh, in PotD you are often fighting 10+ mobs at the same time. Yes, in theory, AI works the same in hard and PotD. But in reality, it's different because numbers. They're the same groups as hard though. Hard has the same number of mobs.

Graze > Hit is so wonderful.... I want a Paladin tank instead of a Fighter now~~~ Enemy AI and formations are exactly the same in PotD. The same methods to protect your back line in regular difficulties also applies in PotD. Teleporting jerks and vamp- frampyr jerks are still pains either way though. But the Deflection bonus from a Paladin is baby stuff compared to Arcane Veil anyway, since the jerks are generally magnetized to the Wizard master race. The Deflection bonus is very nice if you're running two tanks however. I'm not sure if this stacks on gear or not though. Its still in beta at the moment. Give it a shot if you want to try it early, otherwise wait for the official release for a more stable version.

I think the big change that needs to happen is the pet's damage output honestly, their damage is too low and is easily blocked by DR. They need a solid way to get around it, or even just make the pet do raw damage. Survivability is another issue, since going into melee in PotD without adequate defenses is basically suicidal. Resilient Companion is actually a pretty weak talent actually, since it only gives 3 DR. Giving it a boost to Deflection would make it far more useful. Also, Takedown would be 100 times better if it targeted Reflexes or Deflection instead of Fort.

Rot Skulls is a Wand so getting Weapon Focus: Adventurer isn't a bad idea actually. Its their best level 6 spell by far after all, especially with Dangerous Implement.

This topic is linked to on the stickied thread. So I thought to update my list to be a lot more in depth (Especially with 1.05's changes). Though I can't edit my post so I'll have to post it again =/ Level 1 Arkemyr's Dazzling Lights - Targets Reflex and lowers Will. Fantastic spell if you're teamed up with a Cipher since it'll help support their powers. This spell is generally more useful in PotD mode though. In any other difficulty you can easily make do without it. Chill Fog - Good damage over time effect and also inflicts blind. Very useful spell from start to end really. This spell is less useful in PotD however since it targets Fort, and nearly everything has a high Fort defense. Still pretty good all things considered. Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff - Better than most weapons you'll have early game. Its quarterstaff too, which means it'll also have reach as well, making it safe to use even in PotD. Edlritch Aim - Accuracy is the most important thing in the game, so any boost to it is welcome. Fan of Flames - Even with the nerf, this is still a pretty strong spell to throw around. With Scion of Flames, expect some really good damage numbers out of it. Ghost Blades - Reasonable damage and also doesn't affect your own allies. This is probably the spell of choice once 1st-level spells become per encounter actually. It also inflicts Hobbled, which is always valuable in PotD. However, since this spell targets Reflex anyway, its not really that much of a game changer. Slicken - Targets Reflex and inflicts Prone, two great things combined into one. Its easily the best 1st-level spell, never leave home without it. Level 2 Bewildering Spectacle - Early game/per encounter version of Confuse basically. Makes for a nice panic button should the battle becomes unfavorable to your party. Binding Web - It inflicts Hobbled, which is always nice as most offensive spells target Reflex. This spell however targets Fort, which enemies generally have a high value of in PotD. Combusting Wounds - This spell will augment any attack by adding an extra 5 burning damage, this includes DoTs as well! With the right setup, this spell is just devastating. Unfortunately it targets Fort though, which means you probably won't be using it too often in PotD. Curse of Blackened Sight - This spell is golden in PotD, since it targets Will and blind is such a wonderful effect. In lower difficulties though, you might be better off using Chill Fog instead anyway. This spell doesn't affect your own allies though, which is very nice. Fetid Caress - The Wizard's equivalent of Mental Binding, its nowhere near as good however. It targets Fort which means it won't be useful against a lot of enemies in PotD, also while Sicken is very good effect, this spell can affect your own allies with it, which is dangerous. Still for what it does, its a very good spell either way. Merciless Gaze - Extra crit chance is always good, this spell has a long duration as well. Miasma of Dull-Mindedness - Targets Will and lowers Deflection, a very nice combo if your DPS are focused on using weapons and such. Mirrored Image - Mostly for melee Wizards who want a 2nd deflection booster besides Arcane Veil. Necrotic Lance - This spell is devastatingly powerful, dealing high amounts of Corrode damage. It can kill almost everything in Act 1 in a single hit, its that good! Unfortunately, it targets Fort, so in PotD this spell is less amazing. Rolling Flame - Fire it in a small crowded space and watch it wreak havoc upon everything. This however, also includes your own party, its very easy to kill your own team with this if you're not careful. Level 3 Arcane Dampener - Enemies with buffs can be a huge game changer, being able to nullify them is very important in higher difficulties. Ardous Delay of Motion - Slowing the action speed of enemies can be really helpful in reducing the damage your tanks take. This spell targets Will too, which makes it good even in PotD. Crackling Bolt - Same thing as Rolling Flames but with even higher damage. Shock damage isn't quite as good as Burn though. Deleterious Alacrity of Motion - This spell is wonderful. It'll make your casting times so quick, you might need to set the game to slow mode in order to maximize the number of spells you can cast with it! Expose Vulnerabilities - Lowers Deflection and also targets Will, stacks with Miasma of Dull-Mindedness too! Great for weapon based DPSers. Fireball - Very low damage compared to the rest of the damage spells this level and even does less damage than Fan of Flames. It does however target Reflex, which makes it more useful than Noxious Burst in PotD. Also, unlike Crackling Bolt, there's no risk to hitting your own party members with it, unless you're playing on Expert Mode. Kalakoth's Minor Blights - This summons the best ranged weapon for Wizards. This weapon is crazy when used with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. The weapon is a Wand as well which means you can make it hit really hard with Dangerous Implements and even boost its accuracy with a Weapon Focus. Also they're elemental, so the elemental Talents will boosts its damage as well. Like all weapons however, it targets Deflection, so get those Deflection lowering spells out. Noxious Burst - High corrode damage and Sicken make this a really deadly spell. In PotD though, this spell is not as good since it targets Fort. On lower difficulties however, this spell will likely be best choice for a 3rd-level damage spell. Level 4 Confusion - Targets Will and causes enemies to scatter about. A nice panic button should your team be struggling in a certain fight, even if the game's confusion mechanics are annoying and awkward. Essential Phantom - Has an accuracy of 90 and deals about 40 shock damage per hit, not too shabby and better than any of the Chanter's summons. Flame Shield - Gives your Wizard a good retaliation effect. Great for melee wizards, virtually useless for ranged ones. Minoletta's Concussive Missiles - The only real choice of a direct damage spell for this level, its not bad one though. Only real drawback is that it targets Deflection which everything has a high value of in PotD. Good thing Wizards have the tools to lower it! Wall of Flame - Great for stacking up Combusting Wounds damage, since this spell's damage over time effect hits very rapidly. Even without Combusting Wounds, this spells rapid damage over time makes it great on any group lacking any Burn DR. Level 5 Blast of Frost - This spell deals a ton of damage and targets Reflex too! Every Wizard should have this. Call to Slumber - Say hello to the best CC spell in the game. It targets Will and inflicts Prone, with a good duration to boot too! Use it, love it. Citzal's Spirit Lance - This weapon has really hyper attack speed, which can get really crazy with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. Its a Pike too, which means it also has Reach, making it safe to use even in PotD. Malignant Cloud - Deals raw damage which is always amazing and is a DoT effect too. It does however target Fort so its less useful in PotD. Wall of Force - Hobble is always nice, but like Binding Web this targets Fort. Much like Wall of Flame, its damage over time is very rapid, making it great with Combusting Wounds. Level 6 Arkemyr's Capricious Hex - Targets Will and inflicts Sickened, Daze and Paralyse. Golden in PotD, but will probably be overshadowed by Adragan in any other difficulty. Chain Lightning - Targets Reflex and deals a good amount of shock damage. Especially good, when dealing with spread out large groups. Citzal's Martial Power - The signature spell for any melee Wizard build. Ranged probably won't find it useful except for maybe Kalakoth's Minor Blights. Death Ring - Massive range, party friendly and deals Corrode damage, so good. Like all good things though, it of course targets Fort. So not quite as good in PotD. Gaze of Adragan - The most infamous Wizard spell in the game. Petrify is an amazing ailment since it stops a target and makes them take a huge amount of extra damage from any attack. This spell is in fact, less game breaking in PotD though, since it targets Fort. Even so, Petrify is so good it might not even matter. Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar - Really powerful DoT affect and targets Reflex to boot. It also inflicts Hobble which is always nice, though since this spell targets Reflex anyway its mildly redundant.

In PotD, Mind Blades is only useful on mobs with low deflection. The thing is, most mobs will have lower Reflex or Will and enemies with low Deflection are very rare. Plus, against groups with low deflection you're better off using your weapon and building focus for your far better powers. I mean, at level 12 you have Amplified Wave. If an enemy has low Deflection, they almost always have low Fortitude as well. It just makes for more sense to use Amplified Wave instead. Besides, using Mind Blades means not using Mental Binding. That's like... THE best Cipher power. Its a Paralyze that targets Will. Targeting Will just makes it the best thing ever in PotD.

There's a bug with two quests at Clîaban Rilag which causes them to be impossible to finish. Bounty: Songsmith Roska - The enemy group doesn't appear to spawn at all. Fragments of Scattered Faith - Its possible to loot the standard without Edér in the party. Returning to the loot point with Edér later will still spawn the Looters event but the quest line halts afterwards with no way to progress it. Save File: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mmn1kqrya1r4sg1/poesave.zip?dl=0

INT also affects the duration of effects as well. I personally like having my Fighter's Prone abilities last longer.

Cipher, with 4 Guns. Open with Mental Binding and then fire a shot and switch between each gun you have instead of reloading them. Technically you can do this on any class that favors ranged weapons. Cipher just has the best synergy with it because of the Focus gain you get from doing so.

You can change party members at any inn or the stronghold. This also includes your own created characters. There's really nothing stopping you from doing them. The only real downside is one of your characters will miss out on the exp. But its not a huge amount of exp anyway.

Honestly, racials aren't that big of a game changer unless its a Moon Godlike. Any race can perform Wizard without any trouble. That said, I'd say Hearth Orlan is the best race for Wizard due to their racial always being active. The Wood Elf's one doesn't work if you're within 4m of an enemy, which you'll likely be for a lot of the game honestly. Not really. Fan of Flames is perfectly usable at ranged with enough INT. Here's that ridiculous range image I posted again: The sad thing is, I can probably get it even bigger since he's only getting +1 INT from gear and doesn't have a food bonus ._. You'll need Hardened Veil, but +75 Deflection is actually really good. Its a hard counter against enemy ranged attackers and teleporting enemies. Extra spell slots are completely worthless IMO due to the fact you can always just Rest and get all your spells back. There's also a ring you can get which comes with 2nd-level and 4th-level bonus spells anyway.

You can only have up to 6 talents, choose wisely. Elemental talents do indeed work with spells. Scion of Flame and Spirit of Decay are the best ones since Fire and Corrode are most commonly used elements for a Wizard. Secrets of Rime is also pretty solid as well as 2 of their best spells are of that element (Blast of Frost and Chill Fog). I'd avoid Heart of the Storm as Crackling Bolt is difficult to use effectively a lot of the time, and Chain Lightning usually won't see as much use as the other 6th level spells. Two-Handed Style only works with melee weapons. Interrupting Blows is pretty useless as Perception is a dump stat for Wizards and you can always just cast Slicken if you need to immediately interrupt an incoming spell. Thrust of the Tattered Veils also works as well. Bloody Slaughter is not very useful either since most of you mass AoE damage will be while the enemies are mostly unscathed. Its slightly more useful in PotD since enemies have higher endurance pools, but still not that fantastic of a talent.

There's not a single reliable online guide at the moment. If you need help or any queries, asking here will prove more fruitful. Everyone's here to help... I think ^^ But yeah, Cipher is very easy to play. The bread and butter combo is to cast Mental Binding, shoot target being bound to get focus back, repeat. Later on you can mix it up with other powers as well as your focus pool gets larger. About the most complicated thing this class has is using their best damage power, Ectopsychic Echo, without killing your party.

AI is unchanged AFAIK. You still see enemies try to run into characters blocking doorways and casters sometimes casting Fireball right in their own faces if you're engaged in melee with them.

Cipher is a lot more comparable to martial classes than you think. Ciphers smack things with their weapon to build focus and use powers to complement their ability to smack things with their weapon. Rogues smack things with their weapon using specific positions and debilitating affects to complement their ability to smack things with their weapon. Rangers smack things with their weapon and coordinate with their pet to complement their ability to smack things with their weapon. Monks smack things with their weapon and build wounds to use abilities to complement their ability to smack things with their weapon. Barbarians smack things with their weapon and uhhh... smack things with their weapon. The big thing that really sets them apart is the fact their selection of powers is as diverse as a caster. They're kinda the middle of the road type class in a sense.

Yeah you only need 1 Priest, if that's what you meant yeah, I understand now.

Not sure what you mean? The usefulness of it? Its very useful and noted for PotD stuff via mechanics bumping accuracy. No I meant in response to their limited debuffing ability. Might be a playstyle difference though. For swarms if possible, I just bottleneck them with a tank and cast Withdraw on him. If bottlenecking isn't an option however then I just have the tank gather them in place, use Repulsing Seal to knock them down, cast Withdraw on the tank and then have every AoE in existence aimed directly at him. Having an off-tank repeat the procedure should they somehow survive and lose engagement due to Withdraw. ... Probably overkill. I tend to be trigger happy when it comes to using spells in general honestly. Ironically though, usually my tanks need rest before my casters. Definitely not from stray AoEs though, honest!

Honestly the starting focus nerf didn't really affect them that badly. If anything though, it made their flaws more apparent, since Ciphers are just awful at major fights compared to the other casters. While they need to build focus in order to use and maintain their most powerful attacks, Wizards and Druids can use theirs right from the start, and more frequently even. Comparing them to the martial classes on the other hand, they're still pretty high up there.

Invocations actually see a lot of use in PotD, mainly because fights are much more drawn out. If you want to use Invocations more frequently its best to use the 1st level Chants as the higher level ones have a greater duration. Another tactic is to have your tanks pull the next mob of enemies when the current group is wounded and doesn't have much time to live. Or even pull everything in the entire area, if you're confident in his bulk. This way the engagement doesn't end and the Chanter can keep their Chants intact. At any rate, what they really should've done though is have either INT or DEX affect the lingering effect at the end of each chant. Extending its duration, thus allowing chants to be finished earlier. It would make the higher level invocations a lot more viable if you're using the higher level chants. Though to be honest, the chants themselves are much more powerful than the invocations, the invocations are just icing on the cake. This. DEX is actually somewhat important if you're using a damage-based Chanter. I would only dump it if you were using a tank based Chanter. If anything INT should be the first stat to look into for dumping, since it doesn't affect Chants only Invocations, and the only ones that would be hurt by low INT are the status inflicting ones.

Since we're talking about pre-level 5 characters... what about Repulsing Seal?

I've always preferred a Druid/Wizard duo, generally because it gives me two different flavors of elemental destruction, plus they actually do have synergy with each other. Wizard holds them in place with spells like Slicken or Call to Slumber, Druid makes them explode into bits and pieces. Or alternatively have them both go nova. Very little can survive a full out onslaught from the both of them, I could even annihilate my tanks if I wanted to.

Two Meat Shields, usually Fighters. Maybe a Chanter or Paladin to mix things up a bit, but otherwise Fighters. Three Avatars of Destruction, of course they must be able to cast spells, otherwise they're not worth using. Raining the battlefield with fire and cold is far more effective than poking things with a sword. Typically a Druid, a Wizard and a Cipher. A Priest, just because buffs are a game changer in longer fights. Also they have their fair share of raining destruction as well. If you want something more specific: Fire Godlike Fighter with Hatchet and Shield Pale Elf Fighter with Hatchet and Shield, has a bow equipped off-hand for pulling purposes Wood Elf Cipher with a Arquebus Hearth Orlan Druid with a Wand, Arbalest equipped off-hand when not casting spells Coastal Aumaua Wizard with a Wand, Arbalest equipped off-hand for the same reason as the Druid Moon Godlike Priest of Magran with a Wand, Arquebus off-hand again for when spells are not needed, which is more often than the other casters

I would've preferred it if they made the Sanguine Plate hold Savage Defiance instead. Frenzy on a Heavy Plate is just... useless. I'm all ok for Wizard buffs. Since Wizard is master class. Fan of Flames nerf hurts but from the looks of it the elemental talents didn't work properly anyway. Getting the fire one will most likely bring its damage back to its former glory.

Difficulty doesn't affect the strength of enemies, only the number of them that appear. At any rate, the hardest part of the fight is the starting position, since your main character will be up front and exposed to all sorts of terrible things. Pause at the start of the fight and cast Dimensional Shift to get the heck outta there. Wyrmund is a Priest so have Arcane Dampener ready, as he usually prioritizes on buffing his mooks. They're 100 times more deadlier with them. He also has Pillar of Holy Fire which hits pretty hard without a decent Reflex defense or fire resistance. Its range is very small though, so keep your group somewhat spread out so it'll only hit 1 character.

Could've sworn they had a Wizard portrait. Though it has facial hair, which the models don't get =(