tamurm

This is why you pull additional encounters with Summons or the like, from the Chanter. Or a spare tank. You often don't even need to use 2 third level spells for haste. Just Minor Blights + the accuracy from Priest, or Eldritch Aim. - The only time you go full on buffage is if it's a huge pack of monsters + boss that you can't hit otherwise. Clear the entire floor of an Endless Dungeon. or open map. - and let's face it. 2nd and third level wizard spells are pretty terrible. Eldritch AIm, Mericless Gaze, and the Haste spell are -extremely- fast to cast. With very little recovery time. - and this was wearing Plate armor. Minor Blights is the only spell that takes time and recovery I'm not sure if Penetrating Shots effect it, I'll probably pick that up next time my Wizard gets a talent.- But if you already took the Blast + Penetrating blast talents. This is the best way to make the most of it.

If you take Blast, Penetrating Blast, Dangerous Impliments, You can do some SERIOUS damage by comboing, the following spells. Sure, it uses ALOT of spells, but you'll soon outdamage everyone in the party by miles. - The combo, on Path of the Damned, far outdamages any other class, including Druid spells from what I've seen. It cleans encounters extremely quickly. - Further buffing the Wizard's accuracy with Blessing , Inspiring Radiance from a Priest , Dire Blessing, will only emphasize it's power. - and I suggest 'back to back' pulling of entire floors , because minor blights is a long duration. - Only stopping to occasionally refresh Eldritch Aim. Which thankfully takes little time to cast. Eldritch Aim, Mericless Gaze, the 3rd level haste spell, and Minor blights. Minor Blights is an impliment, which triggers blast. Only the main attack hits every target in a small radius. - The blast then triggers on EVERY target hit. - It isn't uncommon to dish out 40 on 4 targets, damage, FoE only AoE, followed by 3-5 more blasts for another +40 on everyone. The more targets there are, the more effective it is.

I agree Chill Fog will still be useful. However, I do not agree with making Slicken worthless. Just because it's currently overpowered , just means it should be toned down. Not made utterly useless. If anything, this is what the new Slicken should do. Reflex or Knocked Prone, 3 seconds, and reflex or be hobbled for 3 seconds, every 3 seconds. It still likely leaves a patch of 'Slick' material on the ground, I imagine. People walking into it after the fact would only be 'hobbled.' If we're competing with overpowered spells, Cipher is leagues ahead. Compare Mental Binding to Fetid Caress. - One is FoE only, extremely fast to cast, Paralyzes for only a slightly shorter time, and has a much better 'side-effect' AoE. - and that side effect is FOE only.

Yeah, they pretty much destroyed the wizard class with those changes. Unless Slicken's 'one time' check keeps the target prone for a LONG time. Instead of 2 seconds. - A spell is not worth 2 seconds. They need to buff the prone duration to 8 seconds. Chill Fog was great, but making it Friend or Foe isn't the way to tone it down, it's a way to utterly break it. Shorten it's duration. So now the wizard has only a couple good spells level 1 spells. Fan of Flames, Eldritch Aim - but that can be scrolled or potioned by anyone. Sure it costs money, but if you actually need the spell, It's a better investment than bringing a wizard. Increasing the RANGE of spells is a nice change. However just because you can throw a turd further, a turd is still a turd. Curse of Blackened Sight becoming FOE only is nice, but doesn't make up for the other nerfs. Hitting level 9 no longer will make a wizard feel powerful. We even suggested time and time again to lower when level 1 spells becoming encounter to 7. It just makes us cast Fan of Flames more, admittedly, a high damaging spell, but other classes offer better utility and FoE only AoE. Hitting level 11 even before was utterly meaningless, because level 2 spells are still giant stinkers, and rarely even worth casting in 'Filler' encounters. It has it's 'fun' spells, like rolling flames. Just seeing it roll around is amusing, but, it's never used in any serious encounter.

Fairly interesting to see a melee build do it, which I'll definitely give you props for. but I've had no real issue solo killing the Bear and her cub on Hard with a wizard. Sure, it took a couple reloads to get acquianted on when slicken's knockdown 'ticks' and to time it with Fan of Flame for optimal damage. Slicken, Fan of Flame, Fan of Flame. Dead Bear + cubs. - The cub tends to die in the first flame.

I do think the mobs tend to target the 'squishiest' people first, that is, the person with the least damage resistances to whatever attacks they have. - In the lighthouse for example. My Cipher PC had zero freeze resistance, and every Shade in the damn room would walk around line of sight just to hit him with their freeze bolt. All four of them. All at once. The moment I put on some freeze resistance gear? They changed their priorities to Durance. Who probably had the lowest resistance next. - He had far more HP than my 3 Con Cipher.

Druid, Wizard and Cleric, get level 1 spells as encounters at level 9, and level 2 spells become encounter spells at 11.

Cipher is utterly useless in Path of the Damned major fights. They make easy fights easier. That's their niche. The hard fights? The wizard is the one doing all the work. 2 rests is plenty. Don't judge wizard based on Aloth's starting spells and stats. He's a terrible wizard.

I keep seeing how 'Wizard' is underwealming, and Cipher is superior due to potentially unlimited resources as opposed to spells per rest mechanic, but... I'm not seeing it. Perhaps this judgement is based on Harder and Below difficulty? Based on Path of the Damned difficulty and the huge increase in the enemies Deflections. My Cipher hits possibly 1/10 attacks, this includes things like, Eyestrike, and Mental Binding, Mind Blast. - and can never regain focus because of accuracy issues. This is still early in the game however, around level 5. The Cipher clearly 'wins' out on small encounters, where there arn't 6+ enemies on the field. - But like D&D and Pathfinder in many ways, when there is only one to three enemies on the field, you're usually not in trouble anyway due to simple action economy. That and Arcane Barrage does the trick often enough. Meanwhile, the wizard , in those big fights, is dropping a Chill Fog, blinding and damaging everything, Foe AoE only so you can drop it right on the tank, or on your party if swamped by teleporting Phantoms, Everything becomes easier to hit, like with Eyebite, a wider area, longer lasting, and damages quite a bit. I've had several encounters where Chill Fog is the only thing that can actually hurt the enemy. and in the really difficult large encounters he can toss out Miasma of Dull Mindedness to severely lower the enemies deflection , and will. (-10 to int, resolve, and perception is a massive -20 deflection. -10 Reflex, and -20 Will, Accuracy being king, that's like giving everyone a +20) - and I've never had the spell miss. (Perhaps because it targets Will, and not deflection) - Even when they successfuly save, it lasts for most of the fight. I know my opinion is biased toward the beginning of the game to slightly after stronghold, and perhaps due to inadaquete weapons with + accuracy and lack of enchants, but I'm seriously finding Wizard vastly superior to Cipher. Both characters are elves, for distant advantage, with max might, dex and INT. - and the Cipher is a ranged user. I had initially thought the comparison in power was based on the early game, but even then I'm finding the wizard superior when things are actually dangerous. When do Ciphers get good on Path of the Damned?